2 techniques to control a spin

[ma71supraturbo]

When I was in the 5th grade I took my first snowboarding lesson. I got a bit frustrated because the instructor "wasted" a good hour of the day teaching us how to fall safely. As I got older and began to notice how many people fell incorrectly -- breaking their wrists. I took it for granted then, but the fact is everyone screws up when learning something new -- so I'm glad he took the time to instill falling on the forearms to the point of second nature. Unfortunately, the same doesn't seem to be true for drifting. "Go out and try it in a safe spot" is pretty much what you'll hear, although there are few safe spots I know of that don't have the occasional obsticle. So in the spirit of learning how to fall, here's learning how to spin:


You've just entered a standard corner at a high angle and are sliding at full lock when you go just a bit too far. Chances are you'll jam on the brakes and slide to a stop (non-abs car) -- but where does that take you? Any four wheel skid will simply continue your car's path at the time you locked up the brakes. This technique is good if you're sliding around a corner with a curb or enbankment on the inside. But if you have a lightpole on the outside it's bad. So what should you do instead?


You're at that same high-angle drift in mid-corner and have just passed the point of no return. Instead of slamming on the brakes, you gently push on them, modulating the pedal so the tires never lock up. This will allow the car to continue to rotate (while slowing down) so the car will either do a 180 on the road, or will slide to the infeild (if the car continues to go straight you can apply some handbrake and/or remove some of the countersteer).


Bear in mind that these two techniques are the most useful at low to medium speeds (under 60mph). Any faster than that, and it would take well over 100 feet to stop so chances are greater that you'd still find something to hit. But having some control is better than none, so I hope this may be of some use to the beginners.

[Buddyworm]

Good call and good idea. I now know that that's what lead me to screw up my fender a few months back. I took a corner too wide and saw a bus sign coming so I stood on the brakes, slid right into it. After analyzing the situation over and over in my head I decided that if I'd intentionally spun out and aimed for the inside I would have driven away with a pristine fender.

It would seem that my theory was correct.
B-Wurm

[Drift For Food]

Good point. This can be quite useful for those who have yet to whip a car around mid-drift.

Another option is to simply let off the gas and coast it out. If you haven't spun too far, the rear end will eventually catch and straighten the car back out in which time you abruptly straighen the wheel as to not just drive yourself into the ditch you just tried to avoid. As well, since you use up no traction for braking, you should retain full tire grip to allow you to take the corner safely. This would be good for a corner with a constant radius or one that opens up.

Braking becomes increasingly important if the corner tightens or something is in your way further around the corner where you do have to slow down your foward momentum. You may not just be able to coast it out.

Now I kind of want to suggest a last one. It's not the greatest thing to do, but it can do its job. An option you have is to just keep applying throttle and let the car rotate. As the car points more towards the inside corner, the rear end will push inward and help keep the car from sliding out. As it spins further, it will begin to conteract the forward motion of the car when you begin to face the opposite way you were coming. Beyond 180 degrees, it's useless and you can just lock up the tires. There are some good theories to it, but it's not so practicle as whipping a car around does take up a good amount of space. It's also not as controllable or adjustable as the other methods. If other cars are following, this isn't the smartest thing to do either.