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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site tymix.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!oliveb!tymix!kanner
From: kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: How to turn a Saab?
Message-ID: <435@tymix.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Jun-85 14:25:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: tymix.435
Posted: Sat Jun  1 14:25:18 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Jun-85 00:41:13 EDT
References: <13200026@hpfcla.UUCP>
Reply-To: kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner)
Organization: Tymnet Inc., Cupertino CA
Lines: 43

In article <13200026@hpfcla.UUCP> rdg@hpfcla.UUCP (rdg) writes:
>
>Subject: How to *really* handle a front wheel drive car
>
>No question about it: I love my Saab, but it has one small problem. The
>wrong set of wheels are driven! Well, perhaps "wrong" isn't the right
>word - maybe "front" is better. The fact is, I find it relatively easy
>to handle a rear-wheel drive car. With proper use of the brakes and
>throttle, you can make it do whatever you want - drift, slide, etc.
>How do you perform comparable tasks with an understeering, front-wheel
>drive car, such as the Saab?  What's the best technique for taking the
>car around various types of turns?

During a 7-year stay in England, I owned nothing but FWD cars.  The first
snowy day was a shock to me, my previous cars in the U.S. having been VW
beetles and an old Porsche, both oversteering cars in which, when you got
in trouble, responded favorably to acceleration.  Well, when I felt a bit
of slide rounding a curve, my reflex action was to give it a bit of gas.
Surprise, surprise--I went off the curve on its tangent!  

I found many books in the British libraries on high-level rally driving,
with tips on FWD.  I remember two of them and will pass them on;  I have
used them both.  The first has to do with going over hump-back bridges,
which are common in England.  They are so humped that at 50 or 60 mph you
will literally leave the ground for a moment like a ski jumper.  The trick
with the FWD car is to tromp on the gas at the crest of the bridge.  The
acceleration loads the front end, holding you on the ground.  The second is
the "hand-brake" turn for very sharp cornering.  Start the turn, press the
clutch, and jab sharply with the hand brake, which momentarily locks the
rear wheels.  The car starts to slide around.  When you are aimed in the
direction you wish to go, release the clutch and accelerate.  I tried it at
a safe speed on snow, and it really works.  Professional rally drivers do
it at high speed on dirt roads.

As a general rule, with the caveat that all rules have exceptions, with a
FWD car letting up a bit on the gas when you are in trouble will get you
out of trouble.  I guess that is why beginning drivers find them
user-friendly.

-- 
Herb Kanner
Tymnet, Inc.
...!hplabs!oliveb!tymix!kanner