Date:         Sun, 26 Dec 1999 21:51:43 -0600
Reply-To:     chris smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         chris smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.COM>
Subject:      Re: More counter-intuition re traction (some token VW content)
Comments: To: Alan Pickersgill <pickersgill@HOME.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>Then, sometimes, comes the oversteer.
>
-snip-

>An alternative scenario - starts the same way refusing to turn in. The
>average driver will now get scared and lift off the throttle, this will
>make things worse breaking any little grip there may be. Worse still they
>may apply the brake causing loss of adhesion at all four corners. Then
>suddenly the front tires find grip (bare pavement or salted/sanded surface)
>and the front wheels do turn in; the wheels are usually turned in an
>exaggerated way by now. Rear end, still on the slippier surface comes
>around very suddenly (violent oversteer) now you're sliding sideways to the
>road. If you're very very quick and you know what you're doing you may have
>a choice - let it spin or try to catch it by counter steering (turning the
>wheel the other way). But even talented race drivers, who know what to
>expect, often don't catch it. And if they do it probably isn't over because
>the same thing will now happen in the opposite direction, and if they don't
>spin this time it may happen a third time (a tank slapper). Providing the
>rear wheels with as much grip as possible on front drive cars reduces this
>tendency to sudden oversteer.
>
good point.  I had this happen on a '70 nova back in the 80s.. luckily the
tree I hit at 65mph caught the car between the front tire and the drivers
door.  The fender of that GM tank was so over built that it took the
majority of the impact allowing me to literally walk away from the wreck
unhurt and more than a little shaken.

Kids, don't try this at home.  In a Vanagon the steering is better and the
non-power steering keeps an average human from whipping the wheel back and
forth that much.  But having learned from my youth, I am not ready to test
this theory.  At least my van won't get up to the 90mph I was traveling at
the time I lost it.