Lost control of my SS at 10mph

[xXSilencerXx]

As others said, you hammered it on a wet road. That's what happens when you don't have experience driving a car like that, and it still happens when you do!

[jcouves]

Well, thank you all for the feedback. Probably I'll take some sport driving and defensive driving lessons, I live near of Interlagos racing circuit, there are a lot of very good racing schools there.
What disappointed me a bit is that I have a car with TCS and Stabilitrack and those systems do not help anything in this kind of situation (I was thinking they were more helpful, like the ESP I have on my Azera or an ABS).

[Sword5]

Camaro's and wet roads = Oh Sh**! Trust me I know, and the 4th Gen has been about the worst for this. When taking off on wet roads, start out in Granny mode.

[clg_98ta]

I'm curious, what type car are you used to that you can floor it from a stop on a wet road?

[Inferno2SS]

You have a 400 HP car that comes with Summer tires that are meant to grip the hot pavement. When it is wet or really cold out side you cant go gunning it unless you want to break the tire loose.

[c-dub]

Originally Posted by sterlingnotes

Before you know it, you will be a drifting champ...

haha YES!

[FL1CK]

Originally Posted by jcouves

First, let me explain: in Brazil, where I live, RWD cars are very rare, and I only drove AWD and FWD cars all of my life (roughly 20 years driving). It's my first muscle car.

So, I am driving my brand new Camaro SS (automatic) and stop at a traffic light.

It's 2 AM, the rain had just stopped, and literally no one is on the street. It's a very large, straight avenue, and I can see clearly almost a couple of miles ahead with no one there.

That little devil start saying to me "ok, let's se what this baby can do". I didn't turn off any of the stability helpers. When the light goes green, I step on the floor as fast as I can. Oh, that beautiful V8 sound!

And then the trouble starts: when the car reaches something like 10 mph, the rear end starts to dance like a fish tail swimming. Scared, I release the gas pedal smoothly, and regain control of the vehicle after turning almost 90 degrees. I stop the car, shaking, only my pride was hurt. Geez, what has happened? I go home slowly like an old lady, trying to understand what has happened.

Ok, the ground was wet, and I know that RWD cars are more unstable on those conditions, but spinning at 10mph? And the stability control? Shouldn't it stop the rear end from losing control? In 20 years driving, I did a lot of stupid things, but never lost control of the rear end of my car.

Should I check if my car has a problem or am I the problem?

Stability control isn't going to help when you slam on the gas... too much HP and not enough grip n go... dry pavement next time as many have said.

[ZED SLED]

This is one of the reasons why I'm never out at 2:00AM.

[nancygrl]

There is a probably a limit to TCS and Stabilitrak, and you went way beyond that when you mashed the gas on wet pavement. Wet conditions are not when you want to see what she's got....

[2010 SSRS]

Your Camaro should not be out on wet roads, uh oh, here come all the, lmao.

[Jajru]

Tips for the next time the inner devil starts poking you while raining
1. Safe environment (Track or Parking lot)
2. Wet weather tires

[cab2g]

Yeah you never want to turn TC off on wet roads.

If you have never driven a RWD car you're in for some fun surprises. Over the years I've realized that most FWD car drivers never even notice when their cars begin to lose traction and never adjust their acceleration for the conditions. Many FWD drivers will continue to mash the pedal until their car accelerates even if their front tires are spinning. This is probably due to the fact that even with the front wheels spinning the car still goes in a straight line. FWD cars make bad drivers. So don't blame yourself completely, you just never had to pay attention to your car before.

There are probably plenty times already that the car's Traction Control has kicked in and stopped wheel spin for you on wet days. Just realize that if the back end moves to the left or right at all even with TC on, your back wheels are spinning faster than your forward motion. If you start to accelerate and you feel the car bog down, your wheels were slipping and TC kicked in. If you hear a sort of "hissing" when you accelerate from a stop, your wheels are spinning. If I were you I'd find a safe place to practice driving when it is wet outside. At any of these points, w/o traction control, you could very easily lose control, so be aware of this. Do tests with TC on and with it off and note the difference in handling.

[Darth_Emma]

Get a maggie, then you'll really have some fun.

[Skidpuppy]

400 hp and wet roads don't mix.