Imaging Pedal
Imaging Pedal
Sharp, but smooth -- a guidance on skid control
Let's take a simple scenario: you enter a corner, and the car starts to slide. In order to tell you what to do, first we need to answer the question: why?
A skid develops in two stages: first, the actual skid: one, two, three or even four wheels lose a siginficant amount of grip, in other words, they are skidding. The second stage, is when the driver makes a change to the steering, power or braking, and the car does not react is he would expect, because of the lost of traction. The idea is that the skid began before the driver saw, that's not the skid itself. The problem is that, while the second stage is detectable by vision, how do we know when the first stage is about us, how do we know if the car is skidding, before we are about to say hello to an oncoming car?
The answer is: you need to feel it. This is done mainly by making sure you seat propely: your back and bottom should be tightly squizzed into the back of the seat, the hands should be positioned at 9:15 on the wheel, thumbs inside, the left foot, when not working the clutch, or when driving an automatic, is seating in the footrest and is, idealy, squizzing on that footrest as if it was a real pedal, while cornering.
So, how do we solve skids after. I will make it easy for you, with an SAT-like, mutliple-choice question: A. Nothing, just don't get into skids by driving right. B. Nothing, just don't get into skids by driving right. C. Identify the skid and react accordingly. D. All of the above.
The answer is: D, all of the above. What I'm trying to say is that you need to avoid skidding in the first place, mainly by slowing down, being smooth, checking out your tires regularly, and driving according to conditions. However, should a skid develop anyhow, you need to know what you are up against and react. Yes, there are different types of skids, and they are treated a bit differently.
1. Understeer
Understeer is the more likely scenario of a modern car. I always find it funny to hear the image that people have about sharp cornering while traveling in high speeds, thinking that the car would spin. Such an aspect, which can be seen in TV shows and in racing, is also a popular field in advanced driver training, though I believe it's less important. That's because, in high speed cornering, most modern cars will actually do a much more simple thing: they just won't turn. The reason is, that in a modern front wheel-drive, the front wheel are sharing grip between steering and acclerating applications. Too much acceleration, will come on the expense of steering. The faster you go, or the deeper you foot is pressing the go-pedal, the least will your car be willing to turn and it would require more and more steering lock to get it traveling in the desired line. This is, for obvious reasons, called understeer.
Under slippery conditions, very high speeds, or brutal acceleration or braking, understeer can prove to be quite harsh. And, when you need to make a quick turn, the car simply turns very wide, or even not turning at all. But wait, that's the outcome, what about the skid itself? Well, this is where front-wheel drive is handy: understeer has a very unique, though somewhat missleading sense to it. It feels as though if the wheel is becoming lighter, since the front wheels are skidding, and are not gripping the road. If you sense this, you can begin the correction much before you would, if you were to simply react to the outcome of the skid. So, if the car is not turning as you want, tighten the wheel just a bit more into the corner. In severe understeer cases, a sharp addition of lock will actually cause a greater lost of grip. But, in 99% of the cases, adding just a bit more lock will help. Another good response will be to release the pedals. It's usually the power being pressed down, in which case easing off smoothly (without lifting off agressively) could be enough. It can also be the brakes, so the wheels are locked. The same applies here. If both the steering and pedaling does not work, than it's advised to quickly move to very light braking and, if nessecary, apply additional braking pressure progressively. This will shift weight forward to increase frontal traction and able to steering wheels to re-grip. The car might react in a short "delay" to corrections. The idea is to again "feel" it through, and knowing when grip is restored, which comes before the car pulls itself back straight.
So, for understeer, it's steer where you want to go, ease off the pedals, and apply light braking if nessecary.
2. Oversteer
Oversteer, however, is the opposite situation. It is that tail-whip slide I was kidding about earlier. It is relatively rare in the modern Front-wheel drive, but it's still a realistic scenario. It's usually caused due to hard (but not hard enough) braking while cornering at high speeds or on slippery roadways. In severe cases, the lost of grip to the rear can even be caused by simply lifting off of the throttle at once. Both actions can send the rear of the car away, and towards a possible spin. The car might also regain traction at an unexpected time, and suddenly roll towards the inside of the corner, or it can lose traction completly and stray away from the bend.
The solution is more complex, but it should be counter-intuitive. The problem is that this case is harder to feel. However, there is a way, and that way is mainly about that back of your being squizzed into the seat. By squizzing the left foot into the rest-pedal, we stick ourselves backwards, and we are able to feel the free tail of the car, before seeing it oversteering (as the rear spins away, the front seems to turn too much).
There are many variations of handling this situation. One very popular one is to steer into the skid and apply throttle. The problem is that this solution is not relevant to all sorts of cars (front, rear or all wheel drives), conditions, speeds and alike. It is also hard to committ accuratly, and is more likely to send you skidding sideways, understeer towards the inside of the corner, or oversteer is the opposite direction in a much more voilent manner, than it is to pull you straight.
My method is much more simple. There are two options, you choose between them according to your experience in skid-pans. If you had such experiences, and you feel quite prepared to handle skids, than do this: ease off of the pedals, steer where you want to go (thus far quite like understeer), accelerate lightly if nessecary. (or de-clutch). Steering where you want to go is done by swinging the head away from the unwanted direction where the car is heading to, and than by focusing on visual target in the intended direction of travel. Than steer towards it, generally, away from the direction of the corner. If done quickly enough, just retracting a bit of steering, with easing off of the brake pedal can do the trick, but sometimes the driver need to steer in the other direction, and later readjust the steering again.
Another method, better for most road drivers, is to immediatly retract some steering, and brake as hard as possible as quickly as possible. This can, even in cars without ABS, pull the car out of the slide, or wipe off it's speed to allow the driver to recover in a later stage, or to stop the skidding car completly.
Other techniques
There are other techniques, but these are the ones which will work best for you. Most defensive driving schools will teach to take out some or all of the steering input, in an understeer situation. However, when the car is not turning, it's the last thing you do, to steer to where you don't want to go, and not for nothing: a skidding car is slowing down. The last thing you want to do is to steer and get the car rolling (without slowing down) into that direction. This needs accurate timing, or it will make things even worst.
For oversteer, some instructos say to steer into the skid. However, as I have shown you, while steering into the skid and where you want to go are both essentialy the same direction, steering where you want to go is, for the normal road driver, a method which will help him point the wheel in the desired line, and not apply exaggerated "opposite lock" which will result in a pendulum effect or fishtailing, which are both more dangerous and less controlled than the original skid. If done quickly enough, there's even no need to turn the wheel away, but just to retract a bit of steering. Turning too much will either be inefficient, due to a large angle between the front wheels and the direction of travel, or be too much efficient, sending the car in the opposite direction. This time, the grip of the front wheels that held you in the generall direction of the corner is now turned away from the corner, and the inertia of the car is being channled towards the outside of the corner. With throttle, this will send the car into an instant, unstoppable and uncontrolable, spin, which will in 90 precent of the cases send the car inevitably towards oncoming traffic, obstacles or even compeltly off-road, the danger of tipping-over or breaking down the car also exists in extreme cases.
As far as applying the throttle, this works very well, but it requires practice. It's gentle balances of spinning wheels or just keeping them rolling, of understeering of oversteering, of a fine balance between steering and power, the sort of application depends or road conditions and speeds. In slow speeds, it can spin the driving wheels, which is -- to a certain degree -- a wanted response, but it's less controlled for most drivers. In higher speeds, it can cause the car to pull itself too soon, thus understeering towards the inside of the corner. Alternatively, it can again cause the deadly "pendulum effect". On slick roadways, the lost of adhension can be caused due to the rear tires floating, in which case, unmeasured acceleration will prove a desaster. Also, any benefits from a rear weight transfer due to accleration are small than one may think, and will be even more limited, if the car was not stabilized by steering beforehand. In such a case, lateral weight shifts continue to unsettle the car, so grip is actually resorted only in one of the two rear wheels. Even one hand has more control than two feet, but two hands on one steering wheel have better control than one foot on two pedals. Pumping, on either brake pedal or throttle, are not reconmended.
Easing off is much better since most oversteer scenarios are caused due to braking, and not by lifting off of the throttle. In such a case, easing off of the brakes will be enough to stablize the car, especially thanks to modern suspensions. The truth is, that you can even manage some skids without lifting off of the brakes completly, becuase the suspension can counter a large part of the cases where a car skids.
Other people, sometimes reconmeded to use the clutch and gears to solve skids. These solutions I like even less, as they have no room for sensitivity, you can't de-clutch half way and can't shift down half a gear. This causes for a possibility of creating drag, of even locking up the driving wheels. When using the clutch as a method to resolve understeer situations, de-clutch will work only once a wheel-drag has been created and, even so, it will be much less efficient than just letting off of the throttle, due to lost of engine braking, and regeneration of drag once the clutch is released. You have several instruments to control a car, the throttle, brakes, steering and transmission. De-clutch and you lose throttle and transmission. Shift gears and you are taking your hand off the steering wheel at the most inappropriate time.Also, for those driving automatic cars, the solution is even less natural, less efficient, and more harmfull to the transmission, and again requires hands to be taken off the wheel when they are needed the most. Using the clutch or shifting also makes you lose balanced and feedback.
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