TGIF! So long, work week and Happy Armistice Day to those that celebrate! And now the weekend is here, so is racing! Let’s learn how to survive spinning in a race car.

Survival – Personal Edition

So, you’ve made the decision to ruin your finances by going racing. Congrats, that is one of the most entertaining ways to drain your savings and retirement account. Unfortunately, when trying to actually win a race you can push the car too hard in a corner. That can lead to oversteer which means the rear of the car has lost traction and is trying to swap ends with the front of the car. Here’s what to do!

• Steer into the skid as soon as you feel the rear stepping out. That means if you’re in a left hand corner, the back end will be rotating to the right, so steer to the right. Right hand corner, you’ll be steering to the left. If you’re quick enough and you didn’t overcook the corner too much, this can be enough to get the car back under control.
• Make sure to stay on the throttle. This will keep weight on the rear wheels and help them to regain traction. Now, don’t go flooring it, that will overwhelm the rear tires’ grip.
• Do not touch the brake. (yet) Lifting or braking transfers weight to the front of the car, which means less weight on the rear tires, which means less ability for them to regain traction. Any lift of the throttle and/or application of the brake will increase the rate of your spin. Not what we want. (yet)
• One of the most important lessons anytime you’re on track, but very important at this critical moment: Your eyes. Look up and focus on where you want to go. This should be the track surface ahead unless you’re trying to wreck. The car magically goes where you’re looking. Ok, what’s actually happening is your hands and feet will try to get the car going that direction without consciously thinking about it.
• If you’ve done this right, the car will start to regain traction. As the grip improves, unwind the steering slowly, moving it closer to center. If not you’ll end up in a tank slapper where the rear end violating swings in the opposite direction. This happens because the rear end now has full grip and you’re turning the wrong way, causing the rear end to loose control again, but in the opposite direction. Not fun.
• Once you’ve got control, keep driving! Don’t slow down, don’t coast. Get back on that throttle and go. This is a race, dammit.
• Lastly, if none of the above worked the car is going to spin. The best thing to do is help it spin. Return the steering wheel to center and put both feet in. One on the clutch and the other on the brake. This will slow the car while letting it spin and not rotate the engine backwards. Hopefully the spin slows enough that you don’t hit a nearby wall. Of course you did remember to install that full roll cage, race seat, and 6 point harnesses, right? And you have an up to date helmet and HANS device, right? Because you’re going to want all those if you hit something. And if you’re going to hit something, let go of the wheel and get your feet off the pedals and hope to hell that safety equipment does its job.

Alright, now you can drive irresponsibly through a corner and know how to survive. To see all this in action, this was me 9 years ago right after I bought this car. Some say I was lucky, I say I was prepared!

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Survival – Species Edition

Time to put the sexy in Friday!

Enjoy the weekend, folks! Alright, now let’s get to what’s most important: Commenting and drinking!