So ive been driving without traction control lately but i cant seem to figure out how anyone could successfully drive any rwd muscle car effectively. Every time i give it some gas at over 5k rpms the cars tires over rotate and i lose control. I can drive without crashing but to do that i have to give it half gas which doesnt seem like the way to do it… If anyone has advice or experience with this i could use some advice thanks.
Try and keep the car as straight as possible, wider cornering and later apexes than normal. try doing one thing at a time. If your steering your not on gas or a tiny amount and when your on gas minimal steering, This helps because your tyres available grip is not overloaded by both throttle and lateral movement(turning) at the same time.
Takes a lot of practice but is well worth it in the end. Bear in mind these cars are very heavy. long and generally have poor handing but big power.
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If you’re having trouble with muscle cars, good luck with the Hennessey Venom =P
RWD cars in general are going to be extremely difficult if not impossible to control on full throttle. Remember that we have analogue triggers and pedals for a reason - only use as much power as is needed to keep the car going fast and in control. 
It may seem impossible at first but trust me it’s not. You just have to learn to feather the throttle more, when you’re coming out of a corner you need to gradually accelerate just enough before you feel the wheels are about to spin rather than mash the throttle 100%. With enough practice you’ll start to learn how to ‘feel’ what the car is telling you, just keep at it and you’ll get there.
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There is a tune by SatNiteEduardo of the '70 Camaro that is RWD and most excellent to drive.
If you want to have success with Muscle cars and leave them RWD, you will need to be careful with your throttle inputs. You cannot just mash the throttle down; you will need to make a conscious effort to modulate and control your throttle inputs and more so in corners.
As HLR Toffo said, most of these cars already have a lot of power. Often, you can get them into a different class and don’t need to add more power and they will still do fine. With all this power, if you do decide to go full throttle, make sure your front wheels are straight and you don’t just ash the trigger down, you pull it progressively.
You may also have to explore the possibility of an altered racing line - your '70 Camaro RWD will need a different line than your '05 Subaru AWD around the same course to effectively have a quick time.
Substitute handling over power if you can, especially tires.
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I use quite low accel diff like about 13 on most of my rwd cars.
I love muscle cars, as I grew up on a diet of “Dukes of Hazzard”, “Smokey & The Bandit”, and “The Blues Brothers”.
Also, I learned to drive by way of a huge Buick station wagon and an old (50’s) Ford pickup, on dirt roads.
Good replies so far - I will add a little bit here.
Muscle cars mostly have big torque outputs, which means you can use a higher gear for a corner than you might imagine. Mostly it is the next gear up, but you might be surprised that sometimes it can even be two gears up.
This would mean that instead of being at 5000+rpm after the apex, you might be at 2000rpm.
The big engined car will have enough torque to get you back again without having applied it too quickly (power is essentialy torque x rpm).
This also allows means you don’t need to be as precise on the throttle input (effectively reducing the sensitivity of the trigger on a controller).
Give it a try, good luck!
To piggyback off this post, it might help wheelspin at launch if you adjust your gear ratios so you have a really long first gear. If you don’t want to mess with gear ratios, you might even try launching in second gear instead of first.
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Make the rear tires as wide as they can go and reduce the tire pressure some. should give you better traction. In a muscle car its all about throttle control as well, they have alot of torque you cant treat them like a import FWD. Once you get the hang of them tho…, it will be worth the frustration of learning how to drive them. Good luck man.
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I’ve seen a lot of good suggestions here so far, and I’d like to add a tidbit. You need to remember that most of the classic American cars have a leaf-sprung live axle. This is a very crude setup and is the reason they don’t seem to put their power down as efficiently as the more modern cars. Even with a Race Suspension kit, they still have this drawback built right in. Couple that with the huge torque outputs of their big V8 engines, and you can see why they are such a challenge to drive. Once you master them, you will have truly earned your bragging rights. Driving classic muscle cars skillfully is also very rewarding by itself. So, remember to practice that throttle control (smooth pull of the trigger) and experiment with different lines!
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Set you accel diff to around 10% should solve most of your problems.
Most muscle cars are “roll” cars with stiff springs to limit pitch when they’re tuned for the track in real life.
Stiff springs, soft sway bars.
DO NOT put a differentials setting at a low number. You’re just peg legging the car. Learning proper throttle control is a constantly learned skill in driving. It’s even harder with a trigger on a controller. But the differential settings should be fairly high. Mine are at 75% or higher on accel and 55% or higher on decel.
Also learn to drive them with their stock gear ratios. Chevy, Mopar, Ford etc all put a lot of time in developing those ratios for a reason.
Be she a C, B, or even S2 my muscle cars never dip below 4000 rpm.
Also power is torque X rpm divided by 5252. Just saying. But the rest he said is good beginner advice. Keeping her in a lower gear is like turning a Muncie close 4 in a th350. Both work. Just the closer in the long run is quicker.
I basically use the race box to add two overdrives to the stock gearbox
Muscle cars have initial understeer Normally. You then tune that to balance out with shocks and throttle. Literally steer with the throttle pressure. I build them in game the same way. And I don’t mean spinning either. Just Basically add throttle to point at the exit past the apex. Do not touch the throttle before hand.
Trail braking is hard but done right Is quick
Braking late is good as long as balance and race brakes are used
vastly different driving line than a AWD Soobie or even a BRZ for example.
Tires
Brakes
Adjustable springs/shocks
Adjustable sways
Adjustable diff
In that order.
After that
Gearbox
Clutch
Flywheel
I never touch their engines until S1. They don’t need it.
Just for an example, I have a Cuda tuned based off my buddy’s real PPIHC Cuda. Check her out, you’ll see how they drive.
Then it’s just getting used to them and holding on for dear life lol
I dare you to make this blanket statement after seeing me drive my Bimmers, Astons, Jags, or American cars let alone my S2 Ultima GTR. Heck even my 427 s/c Shelby with her original engine shows the fallacy of this statement. And yes, her diff accel is at 90%…
Yeah, just adjust your diff settings, put the accel sett8ng to about 10 percent and then focus on tires brakes and suspension…
What?
Why did you say “yeah” to my post?
Seriously, they need accel at 75% minimum not freaking 10.
I get the feeling you misread what I was saying or took it as an attack for absolutely no reason. o_O
Everything this guy said, with some differences.
Don’t shy away from adding power, if there’s PP left once the handling’s sorted. I’m a fan of aggressive cams: they make the murderous acceleration most of these cars have even more epic. Note, though, it can have a negative effect on handling, even if the handling value doesn’t change. Engine response becomes “snappier”, so it’s easier to lose the rear when exiting a corner.
And do upgrade the transmissions: the ratios in the stock 3 and 4 speeds are indeed designed by experts, but are optimized, for the most part, for 1/4 mile drag racing. A nice, tall overdrive gear is a must for highway pulls, unless you like the sound of a 7-litre V8 bouncing off the rev limiter the whole way.
Behind the wheel, muscle cars are lower tech and less refined than other types of performance car. Half of 'em are just 2-door versions of 60s family cars, with oversize engines bolted in and neat-o paint jobs. This means your steering-wheel-badassery is as important as the car’s tuning, if not more so, especially compared to more modern fare. I’ve set plenty of top 100 and top 50 (or better) times and won dozens of races in my untuned musclecars, I just upgrade them sensibly and drive them properly. My advice is pracice x3, then practce some more
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Everyone has some good input here, and I have some more to give that might be even more useful.
Muscle cars are torque monsters, especially the classics. But the classic muscle cars produce the most torque in the low to mid RPM range, usually around 3,000 RPM. With that in mind my first bit of advice is to not drive them like you would you’re civic, this includes when you shift. You need to know the car as well, or better than you know yourself because you have to set the entire car up for a turn before you get to it. You’ll want to know where the engine’s rpm will be through out the curves. Since these cars are torque machines you can let the car run down to or below 4,000 RPM, some you could even take down to 3,500 RPM into a corner and power out of it in a higher gear than what you could in high revving car. You’ll be more stable and you won’t need to shift as soon as others as you come out, but this takes a bit of knowing of your chosen car. But basically do everything you need to do BEFORE you enter the corner.
If you need to upgrade the car the first place to start is the tires, even street grade tires do wonders for these machines, you’ll see their PI skyrocket with just a change in compound. That’s because most classic Muscle Cars came from the factory with polyglass bias ply tires, which in terms of grip is about as effective as snot on a doorknob. Next I’d suggest upgrading the differential to a race grade diff, I personally use something along the lines of about 35 - 50 acceleration setting, if you go too low you’ll end up with one wheel burnouts as you accelerate; and about a 15 in the decel setting, this will reduce lift throttle oversteer and help the car turn a little more sharply.
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I love muscle cars!! Love 'em. I dont win alot. Lol!! I turned off traction control and abs in forza 3. I cant do the clutch, just not natural for it to be a “button”. I cant make it work in my brain. Anyway, what I found is just DRIVE!! Turn off your assists, start off with whatever you want to drive (for a while!) and just drive it. Get used to how it acts when you give it different amounts of throttle, brakes, turning input…all of that. Then slowly work it through the classes, driving for a while as a “C”, “B” and so on. No amount of reading forums can replace seat time, well, couch time. And just backing up what my boy Cuda is saying, my tunes usually have the diff at 75-85%. The only diffs I even drop are cars i have built for drag, Stock tire compound. Other than that, just feather the throttle, learn when to hit it and when to just let the car work.
Check out some of my tunes, I have a couple that even I have gotten in the 1% on a couple tracks. One of my best is my IROC S1, and Cuda S1 isnt bad either. I’m sure better drivers can get them faster. Either look up my GT or search MSS or Maxwell’s Speed Shop.
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