Rain driving questions (archive)

What's the reality behind the supposition that the M3 handles poorly on wet pavement? My stock 97 has Falken tires with about 6K miles so far. I've driven many highway miles in the typical heavy rain of Georgia and Tennessee, running between 65 to 90 mph. Many of those miles covered wet steep, slowly winding mountain grades, as well as wet highway cloverleafs, city streets and curvy secondary highways.

I've not had any sense of a loss of traction, or of an impending spinout or other loss of control. In general, I'm also driving faster, especially on curves, than I ever did with my old worn out riceburner.

I consider myself an observant defensive driver, having 30 years of practice, with only one accident, which occured on glare ice in my first year of independent driving. I pay attention to the tactile sensations transmitted through the steering wheel as well as through the rest of the car. I also usually turn ASC off (the light is on). However, on wet pavement, I'll often turn ASC back on.

So, maybe I shouldn't wonder why I read almost daily, of people being surprised by their M-car's loss of rear traction. I figure they're either:
0. inexperienced drivers
1. running on very bad tires
2 pushing the speed beyond common sense
3. running with substantial power enhancements.
4. some combination of 0,1,2,3.

Considering the M3's 50/50 weight distribution, why else would so many people be complaining of loss of traction?

Opinions?

Be careful out there!

Follow Ups:

It's the drivers, not the car.....m SteveB 23:07 6/18/2000 (0)
Just my observations, some are not good drivers in the wet and the M3 over steers 14:44 6/18/2000 (0)
SO 2 PP/Michelin Sports are performance tires Chris, Windy City Club 14:32 6/18/2000 (3)
- Re: SO 2 PP/Michelin Sports are performance tires Slick///M3 15:03 6/18/2000 (2)
  - I thought Falkens was a county not, a tire :-) Chris, Windy City Club 18:04 6/18/2000 (1)
    - Re Falken tires Slick///M3 20:41 6/18/2000 (0)

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