After a rainy session in auto-x, OEM tires completely confirm they are not suited for any rain driving. You're better off with all-season tires if you can't afford it, otherwise for better dry grip but good rain, you need to rain your cash on Potenza S-03. Even the Nitto NT05 made me feel uneasy about driving in the rain if it pours more than 1 inch.

I doubt he would have gotten a reckless driving ticket. I would file with insurance if it cost more that $1500 to repair. That's what it's for. There's a chance your rate could go up, but that really depends on your history. I think a lot people just underestimate the amount of traction they really have. That, coupled with a pretty powerful engine and rwd is a recipe for disaster without VDC. Just need to really slow down and give the tires a chance to push the water out. There's always a trade-off when it comes to max dry traction vs wet traction performace.

He never said the VDC was off. Just throwing that out there.

You hydroplaned because you drove too fast for your tires. If you havr bad tires, drive slow. If you have good tires, still be careful. The whole non sense with the vdc is a joke, just drive slower!

Lol, I kind of laughed/caught that too. :tup:

Glad you are ok, sucks about the damage to the 40th

Driving the Z in the rain is definitely not as fun for me..always feel like i have to be much more cautious...so rainy days are a blah driving day for me

Don't think we were implying that he (said he) had it off, I was just saying that you need to have it ON in the rain. Bottom line. You are taking a huge risk if you don't. Just sayin.

Well, happy to see that your alive and even able to report this. Cars are cars....we drive'em, we build them, and sometimes we wear them out over time...Sorry about your ride. I'm unclear on this. I've driven my new 370z 2012 in some very heavy rain in VA. The kind where you can't even see the end of the car and I had no problems with the traction. I wasn't playing around but I still had the car around 70 mph. Sometimes, spins happen. Sometimes its the driver overdriving the limits of the car (tires etc). Have you spent anytime on a wet track learning to drift and control and moderate spins? Just asking. I had my Z out a few weeks back and found it very easy to control the throttle and gearing on the MT around the wet track. I could drift it all day long with the traction control off....Either way, happy to know you're alive to deal with it. :tiphat: Either way, it sucks when it happens to us. I feel your pain.

Insurance will label it your fault for driving too fast in the weather conditions. You could be going 5mph and they'll still blame you. Not getting a police report is a bit shady so you'll get asked about that. Not sure what the law is in your state but a lot of places make you report it to DMV if over a certain $ amount.

Good luck but if they ask you to file a police report for the claim the police may have some questions as to why you didn't wait for an officer to show up. I hope alcohol wasn't involved and if it was, learn from it.

I wouldn't file with insurance. It will usually show on car fax if airbags were deployed. The loss in value from that would be enough for me to fix it myself.

I was going around 45-50 I think.
I had just replaced the rear tires two weeks ago because one had been punctured by a box cutter.
I guess I should of looked into getting different tires.
Either way I can't blame it on anything but myself

how many miles were on the new rears at the time of the accident? new tires can be slippery for a few hundred miles due to compounds applied to them during the manufacturing process.

Around 200-300 I think.

:( Glad you're okay buddy.

Yep, the oils and grease from manufacturing can seriously degrade a tires performance. Especially in the rain.

Glad you're ok. That's gonna be a steep repair bill though.