AndrewT

When you get caught into a spin, do you steer INTO it or AWAY from it? If i remember correctly, you steer away, but i dunno. And no, I can't drive yet, i'm just wondering.<br>Thanks a lot,<br>andrewt<br>

Ray Calvo

Back end swinging left, turn left.<br>Back end swinging right, turn right.<p>Works great in my Porsche 911 in an autocross.

Rodney

As Ray describes, steer into the skid. For example, if you take a left hand turn and the rear breaks free, start turning right. What you're trying to do is keep the front wheels pointed in the direction you want to go. Also, keep calm and keep your movements smooth, and try not to over correct. If you over correct just do the same thing in the opposite direction to straighten things out (sounds easier than it is). Skid control is a skill which must be learned...go to an empty parking lot, or better yet an autocross and practice, each car reacts a bit differently at the limit. The A4 (with Quattro) is very controllable when the rear breaks free, and easily recoverable. Enjoy and be safe.<p>Regards,<br>Rodney<p>'99 A4 1.8tqms

David White

If you are on TRACK and you are a beginner....remember this....if you start to spin, both feet in (clutch and brake)....usually beginners on track get themselves in deeper trouble when they try to drive out of a spin.....i have been in some hairy situations with very experienced drivers and they were able to drive out of it, but i would have put both feet in!!<p>BUT, if you are AutoXing, then i agree with the previous 2 posts....autox's are usually low speed and you wont get into to much trouble (other than hitting cones) and you will get some applause and woo hoo's when you spin!!<p>Just my $0.02!<p>David White<br>98 2.8qm

Fish Tail

<br>Steering input is important, but lets not forget brake and throttle inputs. For a beginner, both feet in is probably the safest manuever, however, you dont learn to quickly by doing that. Each car behaves differently, and before attempting any sort of "enthusiastic driving" do yourself a favor. Go to a drivers school, and if you cannot afford to do so, do what i did when i first got my license. Find a huge deserted parking lot that has absolutely no obstructions anywhere. If you bring a friend make sure they stay far away from you so you dont endanger their safety. Make sure its snowing. Allthough you cant stop well, at least you can make the car lose control at relatively low speeds, oversteer at 30mph is safer than trying to get the car to oversteer at 90mph on dry ground. Then drive around in circles. Floor the throttle, brake hard, steer one way etc etc , just to learn how the car reacts in each and every situation. now, if a state trooper finds you he will ticket you for reckless driving, however, this excuse worked for me once. I told them i wasnt comfortable driving in the snow and i felt i needed practice for emergency situations and wanted to test the limits of my car away from the public so as NOT to endanger them. That only worked once however. Now im not condoning any illegal action and im sorry if it seems that way, but getting a license is way too easy and if more drivers did this, the experience would surely help the safety of our roads.

Rodney

Emergency maneuvers should be an integral part of driver training as well as the driver's test. Andrew is not alone, I would bet that around 80% (wild guess) of American drivers don't know what to do when their car loses control. For that matter, most have no idea where their car's limits are, let alone what it feels like when it's on the edge or letting go, or how to respond in such situations. I agree with the parking lot method, used that for every car before my A4...brought the A4 to an autocross. Well, I'd better get off my soap box before this turns into a novel about liscensing being too easy and drivers having no clue.<p>Regards,<br>Rodney<p>'99 A4 1.8tqms

kjk

Friend of mine was on 280N at Woodside Road in California. They were in a 318ic in the left lane, a convertible Rabbit in the number 2 lane, and a Suburban in the number 4 lane all going 75-80 mph. The Rabbit tried to exit and didn't see the Suburban. She swerved back to the left, lost control shot across the freeway back to the right, and hit the Suburban. It went sideways and immediately began to roll and went over edge down a hill. The Rabbit followed, also rolling. My friend couldn't stop because she had accelerated, wisely, to get in front of the trouble. All of this happened because of an overreaction and inability to control a car. Not to mention the inability of the Suburban to brake and avoid an accident. I have always wondered how people get in accidents on straight stretches of freeway. I guess this is how.<p>KJK 91 M5

Aalok

Since the original poster didn't have much driving experience (not that I want to have to try and catch a spin at 80 mph), it should be pointed out that relatively large steering motions are required at low speeds and very small (angle) and short (time) inputs are required at higher speeds.<p>When things are going slow and you feel the tail step out, you have plenty of time to "turn into the skid" and then move back to a neutral steering position. At higher speeds (40-50 mph is a lot faster than 20-30 mph), it is very easy to have the car go the other way if you steer into the skid too much or for too long and don't anticipate the reaction of the car to your inputs. This is what fish tailing is all about.<p>Two feet in (for those who are wondering):<br>On a manual transmission car hit the brakes and the clutch (so you don't kill the engine) when you start to spin. The idea behind this is that you will spin in one location (hopefully only in one or two lanes of traffic if all this is happening on a public road) instead of ending up using the full width of the road and any conveniently located guardrails and embankments like the driver of the Rabbit. I assume that in an automatic you would just hit the brakes, but I don't know for sure.<br>--<br>Aalok (hoping to do a winter driving school)

nt

Good point about over-correcting at speeds!

Dank

I just did it two weekends ago at our NorCal event at Sears Point. Luckily the car spun out straight, which it surely wouldn't have done if I had tried to correct and overcorrected. If that would have happened, I think I would have crashed instead of just wearing down the tires. (Unfortunately, I didn't do both feet in in time, since I did stall out. Although I thought I put 'em in. I wish I had video of it so I could see exactly what I did...)