• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

swapping ends

Share this page

SilentUnicorn

SilentUnicorn

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
My Good friend got married to the girl he has been with for 18 years Sunday, i was asked to be the "Best Witness" of course i agreed. The ceremony was small and done by a JP. The weather was decent for the ceremony, and the T'storm held off till a little bit later. Anyhow, i had my midget, put the top up and headed out toward the house.

Walker Mountain Road, twisty, turny, steep and less than perfect pavement and now a little bit wet from the rain. i went into the left hand corner (in retrospect) a bit to fast. The hind quarter broke right, i corrected and took my foot off the gas. Now i am sliding with the left side trying to pass me..corrected again,,,uh oo... now i am sliding toward the ditch (classic Fishtail) with the right side trying to pass me. Made a judgement call and did not correct and let the rear quarter come around.. There i sat pointing the opposite direction of travel than when i started,,, AND in the wrong lane.

The Good (insert your favorite higher being here) must have been watching out for me and kept anyone else off that stretch of road for me and kept me out of the ditch.

Lesson learned: wet pavement can be slippery.


mark
 
I read the thread title and had heart in throat, Mark... Everso glad you and the Midget both escaped unscathed.

BTW: BTDT. Just a teeny-tiny bit too much boot and wound up in a neighbor's driveway bas-ackwards with NO consequence other than a VERY sheepish departure. It could have been MUCH worse.

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

Have one on me.

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thirsty.gif
 
Hey! You didn't spin out!

You were ..DRIFTIN".. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

For the record, when racing, we're taught that when there is no hope of recovery, <u> Put Both Feet In </u>.
This means, clutch down and brake down hard.
The reason for this is that it will keep the car going in the same orignal path as it rotates. This way, the guys behind you will be able to tell where you're headed (so they can avoid you). If a car spin with the brakes off, it may do a series of unpredictable zig-zags as it rotates.

I'm not sure if this really applies to street driving....I try to do *most* of my spins on the track. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
I'm glad you (and your car) are still with us.

My wife did that with her van about 2-1/2 years ago. She wasn't as fortunate... nor was the oncoming car in the other direction.
 
Glad you made it out unscathed.
 
I'm glad the good respectable car didn't sustain damage, or the occupant(s). Fortunately lesson learned without much cost. Consider it "testing the envelope".

I think (though someone might correct me) that when the rear starts to slide, releasing the gas isn't optimal as it puts a sudden front-rear force on the tires, reducing the lateral grip. Clutch in would be better. Go on, hit me on that.
 
I thought the mid slide lift-off WAS the lesson learned...
Clutch in or steady gas with opposite lock might have been safer.
Glad all is well and undamaged.
 
Nial's 'technique' is my usual response as well. Side benefit is: ya don't need to restart the engine to -slope away- if ya don't HIT anything. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif
 
"both feet in" ... will I remember that when the time comes?

I swapped ends on the "Tail of the Dragon" (HWY129) thanks to gravel on the road. I was not going very fast (thankfully). And luckily, nobody was near me. The car was fine, but in my haste to get out of the middle of the road I did crunch my exhaust pretty bad. I honestly can't remember if I hit the clutch or not. I need to go back and look at the video. I think I may have been in midst of shift when it happened.
 
rulle7 said:
I thought the mid slide lift-off WAS the lesson learned...
Clutch in or steady gas with opposite lock might have been safer.
Glad all is well and undamaged.
Click to expand...

In a full-blown pirouette, NO amount of pedal stabbin' helps much. Steering input can influence a bit. With brake on and clutch in you're just set up for when the tires actually start to grip again. Happens in an eyeblink, so skidpad experience 'n training is a GOOD THING. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

...and never give up! Good visual example is Bugeye58's avatar... He was STILL givin' it steering input while airborn.
I have an idea he was also instinctively applyin' hard right rudder while tryin' to push th' nose over. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Remember that it's both feet in only when there is no hope of recovery.

Don't do this until you've run out of useful options.
And remember that the car doesn't steer if the front wheels are locked up.

Here's one of my favourite quotes about performance driving:

"At some stage in your development, you may have to overstep your known capabilties.
I strongly urge that you pick that spot carefully."

Jim Clark-1966

By the way, if some of you would like to read more about performance driving, please check out this link for the BMW club....it's one of the best things I've seen (skip the first 7 pages of this PDF file and go to the "Curriculum" section).

https://www.ner.org/rr/07/07-PDX-12-S.pdf
 
what got me wa how quickly the steering correction took. I basicilly over corrected every swing of the rear. i learned to drive in rear wheel drive cars and in the snow. A little DRIFTING doesnt bother me and i feel i know what to do. it was way to easy to over correct and of course the more you swing it back and forth the more i was over correcting. for the record i was off the gas and on the clutch , the car did not stall.

I was very lucky, i kept it on the road.

i feel that i did break loose a little bit to easy, my car has 2 extra leafs in the rear and short springs in the front. tires are all in excellent shape 155's on the front and 175-70 ? Cooper Cobra on the rear. perhaps the added stifness of the springs didnt help in this situation.

mark
 
Mark,

Glad it all worked out well. I once did a 360 coming around a tight left hand curve that connected two highways. Luckily at that moment there was no traffic!

There but for the grace of (Insert diety name here)
Aeron ---great BMW article. Thanks for posting it.
 
Swapping ends just because of some rain? Sounds like your tires are due a check.
A mate of mine treated himself to an S2 Elise in which he had a similar situation, except on a busy roundabout during rush hour! He took my advise (which I had actually given him before the brown trousers moment) and enrolled on a skid pan training day. He said it was the best ÂŁ300 he's spent, as he now knows how his car will behave and how to correct it the next time it happens. Got to be cheaper than fixing a dented car...
 
Ya did good, Mark. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

Here inna "Sunny South" it can be rainless for months... then when it DOES rain, the oils and such that have leeched from the road surface make for a condition much like glare ice. No amount of tread or driver input makes a difference. And people don't seem to THINK about it until waay too late.
Lots of Buicks meet their doom that way. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Back
Top