If you're on a track or airfield (naturally) and you overcook it enough to get beyond catching it, i.e. you spin, what should you do? I've heard that you should hit the brakes hard and dip the clutch - is that right?

 

yep - the general idea is to try and come to a standstill as soon as possible - i.e. before you get to meet the armco. Standing on the brakes will slow you down far quicker than letting the wheels roll...

 

If you have ABS disabled or not fitted:

You can stamp on the brakes and lock all the wheels when the car is travelling in a "safe" direction... this should keep it sliding in that same direction, regardless of the direction it's actually pointing.

Don't try this on the way home folks.

 

Depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Locking the wheels is one way of "killing" a spin. Once all wheels are locked, a spinning car no longer pivots around its tyres, so it quickly loses its rotational inertia and just slides in a straight line.

IMHO, the objective is to regain control and keep moving, so you want to wait until you're pointing where you're heading. Other times, a crash is inevitable, so you might try to make the car go in tail first, to minimise any injuries.

Of course, this one of the disadvantage of ABS.

In F1, when a driver spins, it's currently popular to rev the engine and spin the rear wheels in an effort to make the car quickly rotate through 360 degrees while still on the tarmac. Ralf Schumacher does it sometimes if you watch him. It looks very cool if done properly, but you need to be on the ball to catch the front tyres as they come around again.

As for the Scooby, I honestly don't know if this technique would be effective in an AWD car!

 

This is all very interesting, but I'd rather hear it from someone with plenty of experience........where's Stef

Mark.

 

....and don't lock it up on wet grass - you accelerate.....

 

Hmmm

I didn't have as much time to think about it as you guys seem to. I just about managed to dip the clutch and watch all the pretty scenary whirling by.

Glad I have 4WD I was quite deep in the mud by the time I came to a halt.

Amazed by how far you can slide at 80Mph in the wet.

(Ps Eggar Lawson don't read this do they ?)

 

...but, to answer the question, in the quaint American vernacular....stick your head between your legs and kiss your **** goodbye...

 

Yup, did the same thing at TWTB. It's quite hard at first to force yourself to keep the power on, point the wheels where you want to go and just wait for the car to sort itself out!

DaveT-S: You don't accelerate by locking up the wheels on wet grass, it just feels like it because you don't slow down!

 

It takes a lot of ***** to put your right foot down whenever you are that sideways though! It is just not the natural reaction.

 

Just a point but you can 'catch' a scoob from silly angles that are impossible in other cars.

Having attended 'Wetter the Better' and been shown and done it myself, that my scoob can be caught and pulled straight from over 120-150 degrees just by applying full lock and plenty of power. Amazing to know what your car can really do.

DaveW

 

Unfortunatly I managed to catch the rear of my car from a silly angle which I put it to by breaking into a corner... silly boy..
but it pendulumed the otherway which I caught also... but was then on the wrong side of the road and collision happened.
Pictures have been on here before.
Anyway... hoping to eventually do a "wetter the Better" course of something similar..

 

Anyway... hoping to eventually do a "wetter the Better" course of something similar..[/B][/QUOTE]

So where can we do this Wetter the Better course then ?