When you are in a spin...

What are you suppose to do?

Like countersteer, put car in neutral, etc..,??

sorry, I've always been confused...and does this pertain to real driving conditions such as sliding on ice or water?

 

Our cars will initially understeer at the limit. It is also called pushing or plowing. You are turning your wheel sharper than the car can steer. To recover from this, you "open up the wheel" which is to slowly dial back the steering angle until the front tires start steering again. It's very counterintuitive. People usually feel like they should turn sharper to make the car steer more, but this does not work as they're already past the tire's ability to steer the car.
Push your car too hard, or lift the throttle or brake while understeering transfers the car's weight to the front, unloading the rear end. This can cause the rear tires to break traction and start to slide around. The car is now oversteering. It's turning more than you want it to. To recover from oversteer is also counterintuitive. People's first reaction to oversteer is to lift off the gas to slow the vehicle to a controllable speed. This is usually the worst thing to do though, for if your car is already oversteering, is the deceleration that caused it in the first place. To recover from this oversteer in a front driver is to get back on the gas, hard enough to transfer the car's weight to the rear and getting the rear tires to hook up.
With much practice on a track, you can purposely bring on oversteer by trail braking or induce lift/trailing throttle oversteer.
And yes, spin recovery can become part of real driving conditions too.

 

Push the break and clutch as hard as you can, straighten the wheel, and hope you don't hit anything.

SPiFF, who has spun a few times, and only once hit something.

 

If the car starts to skid...... put both feet in (stand on the brake and depress the clutch pedal). If you're in a spin in the dry, chances are the brakes are already locked up, so stay firm on the pedal. If youre in spin in the wet/snow/ice, stand on the brake pedal and lock 'em up, you'll keep going the same direction you were moving, just rotating at the same time. If you're in a skid - not a spin - in the wet, ice, snow, and you have ABS - hold the steering wheel straight and/or countersteer to maintain your line and keep firm pressure on the brake pedal as the ABS magic black box pumps the brakes for you. If you do not have ABS, you'll have to countersteer and pump the brakes as you do this.

Chances are if you're in a competition environment (be it autocross, road race, or even HPDE) you're driving at 8/10ths - 10/10ths - and you dont have a whole lot of grip left. So when you spin, you've locked up the brakes or gotten loose and an end came around, best thing to do is put both feet in and hang on for the ride - dont try to save anything, if you do this the car will come to a stop - collect your composure and continue on.

Hope this helps.... this is only from my autocross and driving experiences, i am by no means an expert on incliment weather car control.

Ryan

 

Oh oops well I covered the before-the-spin part.

 

great replies guys

what i've seen on tracks and almost experienced myself is entering a turn to fast and turning the wheel too much. the rear then starts to slide out.

I'm just wondering if there was a technique to catching a slide before or during the slide itself.

 

Just to clarify what's been said:

1. The easiest (and usually safest) thing to do if the car goes into an uncontrolled spin/skid is to "put both feet in". This means press the brake hard and press the clutch. Pressing the brake will lock the wheels, so the car will spin in a straight line (ie it is rotating around, put its overall motion is in a straight). This makes it easy for other drivers to avoid you - they know where your car will go. Pressing the clutch keeps the motor from stalling and prevents damage to transmission. "Both feet in" is a catch phrase commonly used at competiton and track events, where [you hope] there isn't anything to hit near the track.

2. If, for some reason, you are trying to "save" [maybe narrow road, lots of trees] from a spin, or are in the very early stages of a skid/spin, then you must determine if you are understeering or oversteering. See 4doorH22's description. My only addition is in the case of oversteer, stay on the gas AND steer into the spin (rear end of car kicks left, steer to the left). Of course, if you are in a high power, RWD car, get on the gas only enough to transfer weight, but not enough to spin the tires.

So, in conclusion - "both feet in" if there is space for the car to spin. Or, hope like hell your arms and legs do what they are told, because often they don't.

 

Think fast, don't hesitate. If you think what you should do next, you'll end up on a tire barrier.

reflexes...

 

If its way gone, and you're about to hit something, get your hands off the steering wheel. The wheel can spin around violently, hold your hands up in the air or to the side (there are some great F1 videos of drivers letting go of the whee in the air on the way to the wall).

 

Because if your hands are frozen to the steering wheel and you hit something head on, you can break your wrists.....

 

Yeah my power steering wasn't working and my left wrist still really hurts from fighting the wheel while going over gators sideways this past weekend.

 

The book "Going Faster" is an excellent resource for drivers of any skill level, well worth the price. (pretty much answers any theoretical quesiton i've ever wondered about). They talk about "in a spin, both pedals in", and elaborate, saying if you're in a race environment, and you're out of control, it's best to keep things locked up so you travel in a somewhat predictable line so the people behind you can react...if you're skidding (which is about 70% full braking force), and you get off the brakes, the car could hook-up, causing an unpredictable and sudden direction change, making it harder for those avoiding you to do so successfully. So if you've lost it, it's courtesy to those who haven't to be as simple a ballistic object as possible. Autocross is an excellent environment to play with spin control and feel...especially in the rain.

 

"In a spin, both feet in" In other words push in the clutch and brake. Why? You push in the clutch to prevent a stall or possible engine damage from the wheels turning backwards while the trans is in a forward gear. You push the brake in to get the spin over with as quickly as possible.

Of course this assumes that you are really in a spin, not just in an oversteer situation.

 

Pray.

Warren

 

When you are in a spin, both feet in,
When in doubt, both feet out.
And contrary to what Scott G. will tell you, I really DO mean the clutch and the brake in this situation, not the gas and dead pedal

 

That's what I learned.

LMAO