Subaru WRX Forum banner

Proper way to handle a turn?

4K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  Nose Nuggets 
#1 ·
In a turn whats the proper way to handle your car once you start to slide/drift. Just stay on the accelerator?

I'm curious because I was being stupid and messing around and took a turn alot faster than I should. Which resulted in me drifting almost off the shoulder of the pavement so I panicked and hit the breaks which was a mistake. Slid off the road into the dirt ended up totally sideways sliding.

Now I'm 90% positive the car could have handled the turn no problem, but my driving skills lacked which almost resulted in me messing up my car pretty bad. Any advice in case the situation ever occurs again?
 
#4 ·
Well, first things first. you probably didn’t drift, you understeered to the outside. no amount of throttle will cure understeer, take my word for it.

in the situation you (mayhemsm) described it sounds like you went into a turn with big entry speed, once the car started to understeer to the outside your freaked and went for the brakes. although its not the worst possible mistake you could have made (which would have been go for the throttle) it wasn’t a very wise decision, as you have noted.

understeer is a sinch to correct, all you have to do is gradually lift off the throttle untill the front tires regain grip, just make sure you have enough runoff because you will most likely go wide of your exit line.

if you happen to experience oversteer while taking a turn its a whole different story. as soon as you feel the back end brake loose, and start to come around, you want to immediately turn INTO the skid. in other words, point the tires where you want to go.

a stock WRX is very hard to "drift", because it AWD and has gobs of traction. if you do manage to get your wrx lit, chances are giving it any throttle will just straighten it out. You can induce oversteer if you really want to, by starting like you did before. Go in with big entry speed, and instead of just turning in, you stab the brakes right before or as you turn in, to get a lot of weight on the front tires in an attempt to brake the rear tires loose when you go back to full throttle. You can also try a technique called a scandie flick, or Scandinavian flick, the idea is to disrupt the weight balance of the car by turning the opposite direction of the approaching turn before you actually turn in. so if it’s a right hander, you jerk the wheel left before you turn right.
 
#5 ·
Go in with big entry speed, and instead of just turning in, you stab the brakes right before or as you turn in, to get a lot of weight on the front tires in an attempt to brake the rear tires loose when you go back to full throttle.
this works well on quads too :)

You can also try a technique called a scandie flick, or Scandinavian flick, the idea is to disrupt the weight balance of the car by turning the opposite direction of the approaching turn before you actually turn in. so if it’s a right hander, you jerk the wheel left before you turn right.
think dirt track racing
 
#7 ·
some good info here.

Also a note, the LINE you pick going through a turn is very important. You want to pick the largest possible arc (smallest angle) to go through the turn. This will reduce the severity of the turn which will make it easier to keep your speed up through the turn. The most important measure for sucess going around a turn on a track is usually exit speed. Taking your average right 90 degree turn for example, you want to start from as far left as possible taking a smooth ark that takes you close to the inside corner of the turn and then continues out to the far left side after the turn.

In a AWD car, you have a great deal of traction but they are often prone to understeer so they drive closer to a front wheel drive car than a rear wheel drive car. Generally, you want to be going slow enough to be able to steer the front end into the new direction you want to go and then mash the gas to "pull" you through the turn. If you could not turn the front of the car into the new direction during the turn (you drift out too far) then you were going too fast before entering the turn.

This is opposed to a RWD type oversteer car where the back end determines how much power can be applied through the turn. In an oversteer case, the back end begins to slip out and "lead" the front if the turn is entered too fast. Similarly, if too much power is applied, it will snap out drifting the car out of the desired turn.
 
#8 ·
I have been practicing the scandanavian flick the last couple days on dry pavement. I like it! I have noticed that I feel more comfortable through the corner than if I had just hit it normally. !Thumbs Up
 
#10 ·
NO when you start to drift you're experiencing UNDERSTEER. depending on when you do that - if you drift off early into the turn your entry speed's TOO FAST. brake more and shift weight into the front wheels. if you start to drift off to the side after the apex that's still understeer but you powered up too early - either those 2, OR your racing line is wrong for a start - check w the pros
 
#11 ·
to reduce understeer - buy a rwd, OR, with an awd, you can widen your front wheels put more camber on it, stiffer suspension, this may sound stupid but PUT WEiGHT INTO THE REAR! (like gas or some rocks ;p. lots of other ways inc better braking (and thus brakes) and better skills (by that if you're a pro you can do something to induce oversteer and make your behind slide outwards so that your car straightens out faster so you can power up out of the bend earlier!!
 
#15 ·
oic ... "once your in a slide" huh. and you think he means oversteer - lift off gas in all situation except for a front wheel drive. it will stop. if you try too many stunts (as you of course can step on gas and correct the other way) as a rookie you WILL crash. ok ok ... go to a driving school!
 
#18 ·
i had a close call a few months back... i was takin an exit out of the highway.. exit ramp speed was 20mph.. i had NO clue, i took the exit going 60mph... usually alot of the exit ramps i take are either straight or have very little curves... o yea, and i had Just gotten brand new toyo proxes 4s put on... boy did i understeer badly... there was even a concrete wall in front of me, but the awd finally kicked in and saved my ass... man.. SUCH a close call... had it been my former bmw 328i, i'd probably be messsed up real good...
but now, the toyos are broken in and the traction that it provides plus the AWD, i've had no chance for sliding...
 
#20 ·
no, it would be understeer. he would have turned the wheel and pushed to the outside. the AWD dident really have too much to do with the save part. you just hapend to scrub enough speed so that your front tires could bite again, and then they finally started moving you in the direction they where facing.

sounds like a close call.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top