Turn in or out?

[CivicEx95]

Ok, so heres the situation. You're going around a corner, and your back end starts sliding out. Which way do you turn the wheel to recover? I've been hearing a lot of different things. Does it make a difference if its FWD or RWD? Somebody give a good explanation on how to recover during a skid please, cause the weather in Oregon here sucks. Thanks

[buh_buh]

I think it does make a difference if your in a FR and FF. I don't know about FR, but when my back wheels are skidding out, I usually want to countersteer to straighten out.

[RickDaTuner]

a counter steer is used in a FR car because there is no other way to recover in a FF car you have two options you can counter steer but its has to be minimal steering wheel movment and also a fast transaction if you over steer you make you car spin out and if you dont recover from your countersteer fast enough you will cause another spin

the best thing to do in a FF car when you car starts to slid out is hits the gass just eough to keep traction with the road, while on the gas if you you feel your front slip out then turn your steerint wheel in to the the turn slightly(front wheel drift) then you must learn to judge when to return your steering wheel back to is regular postion. but usally when you rear slip out you can controll it by giving your car a litte bit of gass

[Moppie]

Sideways in a FWD is never as much fun as it is in a RWD, but the pricables are basicly the same.
In most driving school textbooks they will tell you turn into the skid, the idea is you simply spin right round and stop, hopefully with out hitting anything. No really the best option IMO.

If you want to correct it, then you need to countersteer, often this is enough if you get it right, and in most on road situations with some practice will get out of most light skids. However like all driving techniques it does require practice, so go find an empty parking lot, or a dry paddock your allowed to use, or ultimatly a driving school with a skid pan, and start practicing.

Using the acclerator adds to what you can do, but also makes things a little more complex, to much or to little can make the skid worse, or send you spinning off in the other direction. Agian its about practice.

However if your getting into a lot of situations where the back is sliding out then you either need to lay off the hand brake or look at your tyres or suspension set up, or prehaps your driving style. I drive one of the most tail happy FWD Honda's made, and it still requires a good deal of provocation to get it hanging out,

[fritz_269]

In a FF car, if you somehow push the tail out (oversteer is very hard to do in a properly set up FF), you should very gently accelerate and steer gently in the direction of your tail.

i.e. You're going around a tight right hand turn at speed and you discover that your brand new rear sway bar is way too strong when the rear end begins to slide out to your left. If you brake now, you'll encourage the rear to keep going and you'll end up sideways or backwards. So you very gently roll on the accelerator to encourage weight transfer to the rear tires, and steer ever so slightly to the left to keep the tail from coming around on you. (This is why it's called countersteer - you're going around a right hand turn and you end up steering left.) As the tail begins to fall back in line, you slowly return the steering to neutral, brake, and then to the right to get around the turn.

Of course, this all happens in a split second - as Moppie said, you have to practice for it to become natural and reflexive - you won't have time to think when you really need it.

And I'll warn you off of the big newbie mistake when correcting oversteer - you will try to countersteer too far. The tail will snap back in line so quickly that it will actually go through neutral and spin you the opposite way! This is called hook oversteer and even professionals do it sometimes... Just try to slowly, gently nudge the tail back in line, don't panic and snap it back.

A bit about safety: If the world outside the windshield is slewing (moving sideways) keep correcting and keep control. If the world is spinning, put all your weight into the brake and hold it there. Unless you have 10 years of experience as a professional stunt driver, you cannot control a spin; just brake as hard as you can to try to slow you down as much as possible before you hit something.

And one other quick note: In our FF cars, you'll most likely experience understeer, where the car pushes through a corner without turning much. The answer to this is simple: brake. Just gently roll on the brake and keep the steering wheel pointed where you want to go. Braking will both lower the lateral-g forces and transfer weight to the front wheels, allowing you to get back in line.

Have fun & BE SAFE!

[Moppie]

Originally posted by fritz_269
In a FF car, if you somehow push the tail out (oversteer is very hard to do in a properly set up FF)

*cough*handbrake*cough*

or else braking very deep into a corner and turning in suddenly while there is still a lot weight over the frount wheels is often enough, or swinging the wheel under braking on gravel, (yes you can scandie a FWD, (and yes we've discussed this before. )