Some race car folks might be able to explain what’s going on here for me. In the video linked on this page, the cars go into a turn with their wheels cranked hard left, into the initial skid. But their wheels stay cranked left while they complete the 180º right hand turn. How are they steering?
For that matter, they straighten out and come to a hard 90º right hand turn which they do with their front wheels cranked hard left.
I used to do a little bit of just for fun drifting, but I never got to a point anywhere near these folks’ mastery of it. 'Splain for me, please?
The dynamics of a drift are different than normal driving. The turn is started with the wheel turned into the corner just slightly. Of course these cars are going into the corner too fast and the application of a little extra power breaks the rear wheels loose so the driver must turn the steering wheels in the opposite direction to keep the car from spinning completely around in the direction of the turn. It seems counterintitive that the wheels are turned the opposite direction of the curve but notice that they are nearly always pointed in the direction the car is going. This is because the back of the car is swinging around rather than following nicely behind the front wheels. The driver is actually steering with the throttle. The drivers in that video are extremely good but they are at the ragged edge of losing control.
Years ago at NAS Miramar I got a chance to drive an officer’s 911 which behaves very differently than a front engine, rear drive car because of the engine weight being all the way at the back. I threw it into a corner and as the rear wheels started to break loose I gave it a bit more gas. In another car that might have broken the rear wheels loose and spun us around but the 911 just got better traction and rocketed through the curve. Scared teh bejeebers out of him and he never let me near his car again.
On a side note an ex boss of mine nearly destroyed his Corvette and both of us when showing off how much power it had while making a right hand corner. His car has traction control which limits the power to the drivetrain when the rear wheels lose traction. The button that disables it has an icon showing the ass end of a Corvette with some wavy lines under it. Hit the button then the throttle as he turned the wheel and learned the button does exactly what it says. :eek: We were okay but about $7k in damage when the car hit the opposite curb sideways.
