First ride in the rain..my last

[Rickyd]

As I was trying to make it 5 days straight driving the Cobra I ran into a little rain. I thought with 18lbs in the 295 Yoko's I would have decent traction. Mind you it was raining all day. I said forget this and limped home ...not worth the white knuckles. It was fun though to test the leaking soft top..first time i had it up...looks good!

How do you drive in a heavy rain storm assuming you are far from home? I much prefer riding in 17 degree weather with the top down than wet roads.

Sometimes the weather can sneak up on you so I seek some common sense advice.

Thanks

[Excaliber]

Got caught BIG TIME coming home the other day. Flash flood kind of rain. BIG puddles and hydro planing front tires with NO steering kind of rain.

No top, SOAKED to the core by the time I got home. Took two days to dry out the car.

Surprising how well those BIG letter Goodyears do on wet pavement, very impressive. But in "flood" conditions there very wide stance becomes a very big problem.

[Dennis Mosley]

I've taken a couple 3+ hr trips in the rain (houston to austin[3], houston to San Antonio [1], houston to lockart, and back [1], corpus christi to houston [1] and then a bunch around town. My car handles quite well in the wet stuff.

The first one was with out a top...bought a top

There were a few with a top and no side curtians....bought side curitans

Last couple, I had the works...still got wet.

Some of the rain was very hard but like I said the car handles great and I didn't have any problems...other than getting wet. Less wet with the top but still wet.

Just stay calm and take it easy...enjoy the ride. RainX both the outside and the inside of your windshield and keep a small towel in the car just in case water does get on the inside of the glass.

By the way, if you don't have side curtians....avoid passing or being passed by 18 wheelers if you can...who knew the water came out from their tires sideways.....

[G.R.]

You want to drive in the rain buy a Miata, or BMW M-4, or a Boxster.
Cobra tops leak--even SPF's, going a long ways in rain, duct tape tha lower portion of the windshield where it meets the body and the side curtains--you even then may get wet from leaks. Ever drive an MG or in fact any other British roadster, their tops all leak

[G.R.]

Originally posted by Dennis Mosley


By the way, if you don't have side curtians....avoid passing or being passed by 18 wheelers if you can...who knew the water came out from their tires sideways..... [/b]

Sort of like someone turning a hose onto you---from at least 9 wheels

[Lowell W]

Rick,

Nice to meet you at SSR. As I recall, you arrived on Saturday and left the same evening, so you missed all the rain! The weather on Saturday was so beautiful that it almost dried out the car from the trip in on Thursday. On Sunday, it was raining when we left and the rain stopped by about Indianapolis.

I've driven my car in the rain a bunch of times, but only two or three times have I driven in a soaking, blinding, pavement-puddling rain and, while it's no fun at the time, it's great to have had the experience. As one of my college professors once said: "It's kinda like poking a stick in your eye; it feels so good when you stop!".

These big, fat tires do remarkably well on wet roads, but when it rains so hard that the water begins to puddle, they start 'planing and you lose your steering for brief periods. Of course this is the time when the realization of how miserably wet you are, how little you can see and how scary it is to be in 60+mph traffic in a little plastic car you can't steer begins to sap your concentration and enthusiasm. The safest alternative is to just pull over and wait out the worst of the storm. As the rain lets up, the deep water will run off and you'll be able to steer again. Also, for the most part, it's the wind which drives the water into the car, so if you're just sitting there, most of the rain will run off. If I can't pull over, I try to slow to 55-60mph or less, if possible, and look backwards and forwards at the same time.

The good news is that, the more I drive my car in inclement weather, the less concerned I am over a few storm clouds if I decide to go somewhere and the less I fret over getting my "baby" wet. I know how it drives in the rain, how to dry it out when I get home and that a little rain ain't gonna hurt it, although the water will wash the lube away from the rear lower carrier bushings and cause the car to squeak when you go over bumps (see Mike Evangelo at Dynamic for the fix). If I'm going overnight in bad weather, I slip my gym bag with my clean clothes and stuff inside a big garbage bag and set it on the floor on the passenger's side. I've done some waterproofing which has helped me to figure out where the REAL problem areas are and what to do about them in the future. Mike Stenhouse did a great article on this topic in one of the earlier issues of the "Second Srike Newsletter", which is well worth the price of the back issues, or email me and I'll look it up and list the high points for you.

Here's one tip, for which I owe credit to Dave "Woodsy", the guy with the Coupe: In a hard rain, the water can soak your air cleaner, causing your motor to run rich. On Thursday evening, when I limped into the hotel parking lot feeling like a wet rat, my car was running rough. Not rough, like a plug wire off, just seemed to be vibrating more, and it went away when I pushed in the clutch. I thought: "Well, nothing I can do about it now; I'll deal with it in the morning." The next day it was fine. When I mentioned it to Dave, he suggested the wet air cleaner as the cause. On Sunday morning, I put a strip of aluminum duct-sealing tape over the front 10-12" of the air cleaner and the car ran fine in the rain.

The more you drive your car in bad weather, the better you'll like the car and the less you'll mind the bad weather!

Lowell

[BlueRooster]

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Nothing quite like driving next to an 18 wheeler in a downpour.

Dane

[TampaFla]

Drove an MGB for years, never got wet but they have roll up windows. Drove a Wrangler for years, never got wet, they have zip in windows. Seems there ought to be a solution to keeping the rain out of a Cobra somewhere (other than 1 suggestion that you drive really fast).

[Michael C Henry]

In 99 I drove my newly purchased car home from Reno.I ran in rain from Susanvile Ca. to Roseburg Or. you lean forward and towards the middle let off the gas a little and don't drive in another vehicles spray. Drive ahead of where you are and don't pannic.
I drove a 56 Bristle with an alluminum Olds V8 72 - 77 rain- snow Iowa -Washington you name it.I had a top but no sidecurtains or heater- defroster P195R 15 Michelins 15 wire wheels w/knock offs.

[Rickyd]

Thanks for all of your advice.

I took the top off, carefully placed in the fitted storage bags and put it in the basement.

I will heed to all of your advice if I ever get stuck in the rain. I be sure to keep a bar of safeguard handy!

Rick

[Bill Wells]

my trip to SPF/ SSR in Cinci included 1-1/2 hr enroute and 2-1/2hrs going home in torrential downpours. top leaked, carpets were under water and i survived. not much fun but such is life. carpets have dried and i have isolated leak sources . it got wet going there prior year too . second strike has an article about sealing for water leaks and i will incrporate those mods for future rain driving. my spf aint a trailer queen and my 65 mustang convertible and 57 bird have been in the rain many times too, but are more tractable on the wet roads as well as dryer than the spf. use em or lose em as they say, so wet or dry i go. i witnessed the use of a new product / caulk called 'seal and peel' that a local spf owner used. it was remarkable in sealing and then pealing off quite easily with no residue or problems. i used duct tape in strategic areas but next time i anticipate a long wet drive i will use seal and peel instead. it is not life threatening to get wet, although hydro planing is not much fun as i encountered going thru construcitioin areas of dayton. also, rain-x is great for the glass and is better than the wipers were in deflecting water on windshield. i laugh about the drive now, but recall many times during the rain trip that i was not laughing. i am now confident in driving long distances in the wet and will not cancel future outings when the weather forecast is not good, i will just caulk and roll...even if the forecast calls for rain at dvsf this year..screw the rain, just drive it. bill.

[Michael C Henry]

Oh Oh they have fitted storage bags?I wouldn't put it too far away otherwise weather will dictate when and where you go if you go anywhere.It isnt that impractable as long as you acknowledge all its short comings the top doesn't do well at high speeds it is not impervious to weather or people. The car is short ,over powered and twitchy.It doesn't have ABS.I'm old school .I'd feather the brakes. But unlike a GEO you can step into it and change your place in traffic in a flash.Everything in life has a pluses and a minuses. They always come together.To denie that is just fooling youreself.What can you deal with.

[Jamo]

My Butler had a nice top and side curtains...still got a bit wet, but not too bad. Wonder how it's doing with Freddie Douglass in Mass.

Turk, Pat and I got caught in some heavy rain coming back from Redding several weeks ago. The Big Letter rain tires did just fine...better than the BFGs and similar street tires IMO.

Did we get soaked...oh hell yes! So? RainX worked great on the inside/outside of the windshield. Windex took any water spots off the arruminum. Besides that...who cares?

[klayfish]

It isn't the water spots that bother me. I was driving home from an open track day at Pocono Raceway and got caught in a heavy thunderstorm. Water was everywhere. Used a spare pair t-shirt (or maybe it was underwear ) to help dry the back of the windshield. The lack of traction is what nearly killed me. I have Firestone Firehawk SZ 50EP on my car, 275/40/17 in the back. When it first started, and the rain was light, I could roll along at a slow speed and be alright. But when it started to pour, I literally slowed down to about 30mph (on the highway where the speed limit is 65) and I was still hydroplaning. Scared the living crap out of me. Next time, I'm just finding the nearest underpass or wide shoulder and stopping...

Steve

[RallySnake]

Rick,

My Toyo Proxy S/T's got us to Houston and back without much drama last year. It was raining most of the time and I was very surprised how good they were. Big puddles didn't even jerk the wheel much. I was really worried coming out of Roswell N.M when we hit a 10 foot wide and 6" deep puddle at about 40 mph. The wave flew over the car and I expected the engine to quit right there. It didn't miss a beat! My Butler hard top and home made side curtains worked really well.

Now, the snow was another story. Stopping and starting was very difficult. Once you got moving, it steered, OK. I was able to teach my son how to make donuts in the snow! YeeeHaw!

Paul

[REAL 1]

Any REAL chance of rain I just don't go. Period.

Been caught twice in the rain. It REALly sucks. Hours of cleaning ahead.

Was asked a question once about how I keep my car so clean. Answer is that I just don't get it dirty.

Yeah. I know. Waxer.