Correcting a Slide?
Discussion
Imagine you are in first gear at 6500rpm, you slip into second and put your foot to the floor, the rear gets angry and decides to SLIDE!!! This has happened to me a couple of times and, only by luck and instinct, I've managed to get the car back in line.
Question: what is the corect technique to get the car OUT of a slide as safely as possible?
Question: what is the corect technique to get the car OUT of a slide as safely as possible?
I was one of the unlucky ones on tuesday night. Going round a corner the back kicked out, car spun and bumped the crash barrier. Wasn't going ridiculously fast but happened so quick, don't know if i could have done anything about it.
I guess the answer is to slow down a bit!!
I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us to go on an advanced driving course or something!
>> Edited by holmsie on Friday 30th September 16:12
I guess the answer is to slow down a bit!!
I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us to go on an advanced driving course or something!
>> Edited by holmsie on Friday 30th September 16:12
Edited by holmsie on Friday 11th May 14:49
How to survive a slide:
1) undo seatbelt
2) open door
3) JUMP !!!
Either that or go out when the roads (not public roads) are wet and slippery and "practice car control", you'll get used to it sliding around a bit more.
Edited to add: If it slides due to wheel spin on the straight, lift off the accelerator progressively until it grips again. Similar technique in corners, lift off progressively until it grips and use a bit of opposite lock (keep the front wheels pointing where you want to go).
>> Edited by v8nrg on Friday 30th September 16:28
1) undo seatbelt
2) open door
3) JUMP !!!
Either that or go out when the roads (not public roads) are wet and slippery and "practice car control", you'll get used to it sliding around a bit more.
Edited to add: If it slides due to wheel spin on the straight, lift off the accelerator progressively until it grips again. Similar technique in corners, lift off progressively until it grips and use a bit of opposite lock (keep the front wheels pointing where you want to go).
>> Edited by v8nrg on Friday 30th September 16:28
k.k. said:
Question: what is the corect technique to get the car OUT of a slide as safely as possible?
Feather the Throttle, do not lift off, you'll find your self goings backwards the other way...
You need to keep the power on, so gently back off, feathering as you do it to stop it snapping the other way...
k.k. said:
Imagine you are in first gear at 6500rpm, you slip into second and put your foot to the floor, the rear gets angry and decides to SLIDE!!! This has happened to me a couple of times and, only by luck and instinct, I've managed to get the car back in line.
Question: what is the corect technique to get the car OUT of a slide as safely as possible?
1) Get some proper training on a skid pan.
2) If 1) not possible, then you have 2 choices.
As has been said before you can feather the throttle. This has a fairly good chance of getting things back together, and from a bystanders point of view looks like you're in control. However, you do run the risk of losing it completely. Given the back wheels have lost traction, if you lift off too much then with the lack of traction engine braking might easily drop them below road speed i.e.still no traction. Car now fishtails in a spectacular fashion with the weight transferred forward and the rear wheels as effective as being locked - first swing feels OK, but if you haven't caught it on the second you will lose it on the third.
In fairness though, it doesn't take too much to feather the throttle to match wheel speed to road speed and it all comes back together. Good practice hooning about on wet airfields and the like to get it right. But if you do get it wrong there is the risk of meeting the scenery.
The only sure-fire way to gather things together again is to get on the clutch. Unless you're at 90 degrees, there will be enough grip of the wheels to accelerate them back up to road speed, and in the blink of an eye it'll all grip...pointing in the direction is was going when you pressed the clutch. Not elegant, not neat, but it will stop the fishtailing.
Better not to get there in the first place though
WB
Get yourself down to a drift practice day, loads about all over the place. You'll learn lots in a safe & fun enviroment, but bring some spare rear wheels/tyres along 
Not so much
more like 
might I suggest the www.driftworks.com calandar for plenty of public dates being announced.
Not so much
more like might I suggest the www.driftworks.com calandar for plenty of public dates being announced.
As tvrolet says, the first slide is the easiest to catch. The further out of shape it gets before you catch it the more violent the rebound is likely be as the back end overshoots and steps out the other side. You need to take off the correction to slow the sideways movement down as it gets back towards the straight ahead position. There's a fine line here, if you are fractionally too slow taking the correction off (and then applying correction the other way if necessary) it will swing back and forth more and more violently until eventually you lose it completely. If you get the correction on and then off again fast enough, the sideways movement will quickly be damped down and it will straighten up without any drama.
I think there is a critical decision point very early on in this process. If you try to 'ride it out' and get the car back under control with the steering and throttle, you will keep going more or less at the same speed you started at, swerving from side to side and taking up an awful lot of space. If you hit anything before you get it under control, you're likely to hit it hard, and with a high sideways component which will likely put you into a spin and see you wiping several corners off the car.
The alternative once you feel it getting away from you is to step on the brakes and lock all four wheels. The car will keep going more or less in a straight line rotating slowly. If you do it soon enough you may well find it stops completely on the back stuff. If you *do* hit anything, at least you'll have scrubbed off as much speed as possible and hopefully you will only nudge one corner.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 30th September 17:44
I think there is a critical decision point very early on in this process. If you try to 'ride it out' and get the car back under control with the steering and throttle, you will keep going more or less at the same speed you started at, swerving from side to side and taking up an awful lot of space. If you hit anything before you get it under control, you're likely to hit it hard, and with a high sideways component which will likely put you into a spin and see you wiping several corners off the car.
The alternative once you feel it getting away from you is to step on the brakes and lock all four wheels. The car will keep going more or less in a straight line rotating slowly. If you do it soon enough you may well find it stops completely on the back stuff. If you *do* hit anything, at least you'll have scrubbed off as much speed as possible and hopefully you will only nudge one corner.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 30th September 17:44
K.K. said:
Thanks Hughesie, but what's "feathering"?
KK
You need to keep the power on, so gently back off, feathering as you do it to stop it snapping the other way...
You just kind of back off the power, trying to match the speed of the road with the speed of your tyres...
Like others have said get on a wet airfield or a big wet car park and practice...
Someone should explain all this to the driver of the LNT race car at CREAM last week... 
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bigmark82/pics2/LNT%20spin.wmv
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bigmark82/pics2/LNT%20spin.wmv
It takes huge confidence in practice to keep the gas on during oversteer and it won't always help. You have to come off the gas to get the rear tyres to grip but not too much or too quickly because you'll have another problem - weight transfer to the front which means less grip at the rear. That's why it's ideal to 'feather' the throttle but I don't think it's possible without practice. You're instinct will be to come off the gas completely and possibly hit the brakes. This of course can make things worse as weight shifts forwards to the front tyres, further reducing grip at the rear.
Realistically you have to practice 'opposite locking' just like you had to practice wheelying your bicycle at school. The best way is to get some driver training. It's great fun and really rewarding. Otherwise go to a big, empty supermarket car park on a wet sunday and start hooning around. Once you learn how to slide the rear in control it becomes a hugely enjoyable part of your TVR ownership. But, just like wheelying it can always go wrong! Don't get too cocky like I did once in a T350!
Realistically you have to practice 'opposite locking' just like you had to practice wheelying your bicycle at school. The best way is to get some driver training. It's great fun and really rewarding. Otherwise go to a big, empty supermarket car park on a wet sunday and start hooning around. Once you learn how to slide the rear in control it becomes a hugely enjoyable part of your TVR ownership. But, just like wheelying it can always go wrong! Don't get too cocky like I did once in a T350!
....
turns up! 
the pits said:
You're instinct will be to come off the gas completely and possibly hit the brakes. This of course can make things worse
I did when i first got the Griff, soon teaches you to "feather" and not to brake, as ended up just locking the wheels up and sliding down the road sideways, a good job it was early in the morning and no traffic about.
k.k. said:
Question: what is the corect technique to get the car OUT of a slide as safely as possible?
I would suggest not doing this!
k.k. said:
Imagine you are in first gear at 6500rpm, you slip into second and put your foot to the floor
Seriously, a TVR is always likely to lose control if you dump the clutch and floor it when going from first to second. If you do this in less than ideal conditions (on a wet/cold roads whilst turning a corner), you will CONSIDERABLE skills and experience to catch it, if it's even possible.
I would suggest firstly, be gentle with the application of power until you have built up a bit of experience catching slides. I read about understeer and oversteer 10 years ago but it took me about 3/4 years of TVR driving before I had a clue about controlling them.
As mentioned elsewhere, I would experiment in a car park or on a car control course. Until then, take it easy on the road.
Sorry if this sounds a bit like preaching, but we have so many people on here saying "the car just spun". I've never had a slide in the TVR that wasn't 100% caused by me (either intentionally or otherwise).
Once you master it, it can be an impressive skill (under controlled conditions)!
Cheers,
Ian A.
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