More ice here than snow. It took an hour to chip out Poco. 2 inches of the stuff on the roof. Had to climb in through the hatch to get him started, as the door handles were incased in ice.

I'm the only one without a hat on, no gloves, and my light fall jacket open.

Mark

 

This is what your referring to http://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/a....aspx?post=573

Here's the secret - if you're in a skid, whether understeer or oversteer, look where you want to go. Let me say that one more time, because it's so important - look in the direction you want to go. Your hands will naturally turn that way too, and you'll be doing the right thing. If you look at the wall, you'll hit the wall. Seriously.

That has nothing to do with the direction of where you turn. Note how he says your hands will do the right thing. Instinct.

As to the question ...

Absolutely. See my post #42 for the long story.

I have no idea how long you've been driving but I started long before the thought of FWD existed. We were always taught to do the "opposite" of what you think is right .... Turn into the direction of the skid

Its like if you learned to panic brake before ABS. In the "Old days" you were taught the quick jab the brake, then hit it hard rather than to just stomp on the brake. In effect, you were acting as a human ABS. Today, you just stomp on the brake and ABS does the "jabbing" for you.

Here is an article that shows ppl are depending upon the electronic widgets too much and no longer know how to really control a car http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/01/...-tech-systems/

Some references ...

http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/r...emergency2.asp

If the vehicle continues to skid, gently turn the wheels in the direction the car is skidding.

http://www.yelp.com/topic/0XJzZQWLqx3lw-4Z-puzJA

For a rear wheel drive car:
1: DO NOT BRAKE. Take your foot OFF the gas.
2: Turn your wheel into the spinout, towards the direction the car is skidding towards. For instance, if you're turning left, and your car's rear end fishtails to the right, turn your wheel to the RIGHT. Do NOT freak out and turn it HARD. Turn it quickly but smoothly, and just enough to get the steering wheels to get traction again. Takes some practice or just a good feel for your steering wheel and car.
3) Once your wheels bite into the road (you'll feel the grip, steer back towards where you actually want to go. In the same example, you basically turn back to the left.

http://www.factbites.com/topics/Rear-wheel-drive

To control an oversteering skid, where the rear wheels are heading for the weeds, you have to both slow down and counter intuitively turn the wheel in the opposite of the direction you're turning.

 

chows4us....in the procarcare reference above, they state that in a skid, one can push in the clutch and press hard on the brakes to lock the wheels......that does not seem prudent to me....even in a RWD car that might not be the best course of action....I like your approach to dealing with skids more than procarcare's

 

Ah, I see the issue Chows: I pointed out the front tires should always point in the direction you want to go while you are thinking of which way to turn compared to the direction of travel (which may well be sideways). Well I'm pointing out you don't actually need to care which direction it's skidding.

I've found that if you tell someone a thing like "turn into the skid if oversteering and out of the skid if understeering," they will first have to figure out which way the car is heading, then which end of the car is skidding in order to figure if they should turn the intuitive or counterintuitive way, then by how far. By the time they're done figuring, they've already crashed.

In contrast, pointing the tires where you want to go is intuitive and never wrong; the result is exactly the same, but the difference is it's a lot easier to remember. To use your example, when the back of your car stepped out you would only have needed to remember to steer toward the middle of the road no matter which direction the car was pointed right now (which is the same as steering into the skid; car pointed toward mountain, steer away from mountain toward road). The strange thing about your story is you did exactly the opposite of what you said should be done (back of the car stepped left=skidding left, you turned right toward the mountain=away from the skid) and that resulted in a 180 spin. See even you can't remember fast enough.

OTOH if the front had stepped out left, steering farther (toward the mountain) to point the tires back toward the center of the road (which is the same as steering away from the skid) would have been correct for understeer.

Note this has the added advantage of reducing the likelihood of overcorrecting, which would have sent you off the cliff. And it's absolutely consistent whether it's understeer or oversteer, RWD or FWD. Simply look where you want to go and only turn the wheel that far, whether there is stability control or not. As the car rotates, keep adjusting the steering to keep it pointing toward where you want to be no matter what. That way you don't have to think about when should I stop turning into the skid...

I guess it's easiest to just push around a R/C car to prove to yourself that it's really the same thing, and that you need only worry about which way the car is pointing and where you'd like it to point instead of this direction of skid stuff.

FWD has been around in the United States since the 1929 Cord. I had no idea you were that old