Avoid spinning in your car
Discussion
cyberface said:
Also don't gun it away from petrol stations, regardless of how many attractive girls are standing at the pumps. There's always diesel on the road around filling stations. I've had a monster fishtail accelerating downhill from a filling station and had to use the whole road to get it back straight again... luckily there was nobody coming the other way!
Why do we think that accelerating hard in first gear impresses people? It doesn't, ever. So why do we do it?
henry-f said:
I'm looking to do British GT's or Britcar in a Cup car but my budget isn't that big. I know that i'll be on the pace but it depends on the deal that I can do.
Need a second driver for 2006 Henry?
Hopefully driving with Pete again this season, we seem to look after the car well and are there or there abouts with the pace. He also makes me look ravishing in comparison on the podium !!
Henry
There is no such thing as an ugly racing driver.
Good luck for 2006.
Steve
fulham911club said:
[quote=cyberface]
Why do we think that accelerating hard in first gear impresses people? It doesn't, ever. So why do we do it?
try telling that to my 2 year old son ... he loves it !!
So does my daughter, from inside the car. I was referring to spectators.
fulham911club said:
So does my daughter, from inside the car. I was referring to spectators.
Ahhh, fair point then. From the outside you do tend to think "knob".
Couldn't agree more, yet when I'm in the drivers seat I think "this'll look good!". Particularly with music on. Maybe it's just me.
henry-f said:Good advice, unfortunately too late for me, but exactly in the circumstances you describe.
The vast majority of spins are likely to occur when you`re accelerating in a lower gear and turning a bit of a corner. The back end will break away and you`ll pop the old girl into the armco.
For me it wasn't so much a break away as snap oversteer. Still trying to work out why it went so suddenly.
Good luck henry some of this stuff ends up on Sky so please post if the races are on telly, makes it more interesting...
Agree H&T on the road, sod that - would never push that hard on the road.
Steve - if you need a second driver, i,m available (never raced though) would love to race always been an ambition un-fulfilled. Very sympathetic driver, good team player, face for radio... :-0
Agree H&T on the road, sod that - would never push that hard on the road.
Steve - if you need a second driver, i,m available (never raced though) would love to race always been an ambition un-fulfilled. Very sympathetic driver, good team player, face for radio... :-0
henry-f said:
Hopefully driving with Pete again this season, we seem to look after the car well and are there or there abouts with the pace. He also makes me look ravishing in comparison on the podium !!
Henry
God has smiled on you Mr H. It must have just been my bad luck to share cars with Mad Pete in the days when I had to replace bent valves 7 times in 3 seasons.....
simonharrod911 said:
Also don't gun it away from petrol stations, regardless of how many attractive girls are standing at the pumps. There's always diesel on the road around filling stations. I've had a monster fishtail accelerating downhill from a filling station and had to use the whole road to get it back straight again... luckily there was nobody coming the other way!
Why do we think that accelerating hard in first gear impresses people? It doesn't, ever. So why do we do it?
It sounds cool. And accelerating at full throttle to the red line in anything other than first gear means breaking the speed limit and being a criminal.
ninemeister said:
God has smiled on you Mr H. It must have just been my bad luck to share cars with Mad Pete in the days when I had to replace bent valves 7 times in 3 seasons.....
You`re joking, he told me he`s never even come near a rev limiter.
Has he asked you if you`ve got a spare BBS rear alloy for a GT3 on the shelf !! (Still cheaper than the valves & pistons though), and it was in the dark.
He`s a good lad really.
Henry
burzel said:
Hey colin you forgot to mention,pots,pistons,heads,springs,retainers etc
Henry its debatable who is the best looking !Peters mum loves him!!
Have a good xmas,and not to many pies,it will slow you down.
That's a good point, there must be enough spare parts in Pete's garage to build another RS engine - just a shame they are all scrap!
Thanks for tip on the pies but they are more a Wigan trait rather than Warrington, but I'll accept the advice in any case, thanks. As for slowing me down, got a few more tricks in the pipeline to counteract the excessive driver weight. Best regards to all at the Rock!
good advice chaps.. i'd had my porker a week and hit a slightly damp roundabout a bit hard.. mild understeer.. which as taught for my front wheel drive skid pan.. led me to dump the clutch.. translated to a good bit of front end bite, and a whoop load of back end travel, and round she went.. cant remember what i did.. probably something stupid like booted it.. but i ended up going backwards up the exit.. managed to avoid all curbs but royalley pooped myself.
Just grateful it was 11:30 pm, with no cops and no-one else on the junction. I guess we all have to learn sometimes.
Just grateful it was 11:30 pm, with no cops and no-one else on the junction. I guess we all have to learn sometimes.
The best bail-out option is to nail the brakes and lock all four wheels. ABS takes this option away though. 
One thing worth considering: if you have a powerful car at low revs in a high gear, it may be less likely to spin the wheels but still possible, and if it happens the effects can be far more vicous than in a lower gear. If you're pressing on in slippery conditions then a lower gear may be more frightening but ultimately safer. I know one very experience race driver who was pootling along in slippery conditions, accelerating gently up a slip road in a high gear and the back end broke traction so abruptly and unexpectedly that he lost it completely. The combination of high throttle sensitivity at low throttle angles, a rising torque curve and high gearing to the back wheels means you can get 30 mph worth of wheel spin in the blink of an eye, you have to be very quick on the ball to get it back from there.
One thing worth considering: if you have a powerful car at low revs in a high gear, it may be less likely to spin the wheels but still possible, and if it happens the effects can be far more vicous than in a lower gear. If you're pressing on in slippery conditions then a lower gear may be more frightening but ultimately safer. I know one very experience race driver who was pootling along in slippery conditions, accelerating gently up a slip road in a high gear and the back end broke traction so abruptly and unexpectedly that he lost it completely. The combination of high throttle sensitivity at low throttle angles, a rising torque curve and high gearing to the back wheels means you can get 30 mph worth of wheel spin in the blink of an eye, you have to be very quick on the ball to get it back from there.
I echo what Pete says here; the option of using a higher gear is to my eyes driving around the issue rather than dealing with it. Personally I'd advise just using a large dollop of extra throttle sensitivity, with very smooth application on corner exit. This way if you encounter wheelspin it shouldn't be very aggressive as your wheels will be spinning only slightly faster than road speed. To the chap who used the clutch to try and escape understeer, I'd suggest simply *gently* closing the thottle if this happens again. Cutting power suddenly is not a smooth action and any abrupt action within the car will normally result in an abrupt reaction outside the car. The key to not spinning for me is "be smooth"
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