What do you do when you spin (on track)

[Tutuur]

I've been driving the Ring for a few years now and i'm taking my new 197 there in May.

Now since i don't really have alot experience with the 197 i'll be taking it easy!

I always wondered though, with old (non-abs) cars i always stab on the brakes when i lose control (not that it happened much but it saved me once) causing all four wheels to block so the car keeps heading in the forward direction. Now, what happens when you have an abs equipped car?

Will it try to recover resulting in the car rolling in the wrong direction or does it just block?

Any experiences anyone?

Cheers!

 

[Tutuur]

For the ones interested, here is a vid of my sub 10min lap with the Clio Dci:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfkYgch8k2s

 

[CallorFold]

Not had any experience of the ABS in the Clio but stamping the brakes in my previous motor the ABS just let the wheels slip ever so slightly while under braking to keep traction.

I've never been going fast enough to have to try, but supposedly ABS allows you to still steer the car while braking, so don't just stamp the brakes and hope for the best, stamp the breaks and keep pointing the wheel where you want to go.

https://www.aaafoundation.org/faqs-anti-lock-braking-system-abs#steer

"How should I steer during an emergency stop in an ABS-equipped vehicle?

Without ABS, once your front wheels lock, your vehicle will skid straight ahead, regardless of how you steer. Drivers who are accustomed to driving vehicles without ABS may sometimes turn the steering wheel sharply when performing an emergency stop. This is dangerous in a vehicle with four-wheel ABS. If you need to steer the car while braking to avoid an obstacle in front of you, carefully steer according to where you want your vehicle to go, and avoid sudden large steering inputs (i.e., don't suddenly jerk the steering wheel half of a turn while stomping on the brakes). If you do that, you may end up driving off of the road or into oncoming traffic."

 

[Tutuur]

I know what abs does and how it works. I was just wondering when you spin the car at high speed, let's say you're going down the track sideways and you push the brakes, it would try to regain traction possibly ending up in going towards a barrier.

in situations like that when you block all four wheels you'd just go in th same direction as you where sliding preventing you to head down a barrier.

guess this is why everyone removes abs on track cars

 

[ben_r1]

'In a spin, both feet in' is what I was always told even with ABS cars. In other words clutch and brake down hard.

 

[Jamz72]

I span on track in my 200 with traction off.. I just planted my foot on the brake and all the wheels locked (I was going backwards at this point) until I stopped

 

[GrumpyTwig]

I have a fair bit of experience of the 200 on track with a variety of tyres and conditions, as well as the Megane which is much more lairy at the back end.

Like most of driving it depends what position the car is in when you take 'corrective action'. There's an amount of angle you can slide the car at which jamming your foot on the throttle will right the car with sufficient lock as well, not tokyo drift amounts of lock but wheels pointing in the direction you actually want to go roughly is the idea and the rear can gain traction again then you feed the thottle back off again to stop it 'penduluming' around the front wheels/c.o.m.

Have to admit my only experience of not having ABS is in sims (proper ones, not need for speed ) and I've only ever used the blocking of wheels on RWD cars where catching slides can be a bit more tricky, in FWD cars I've ALWAYS used the throttle to right them.

If you get beyond the angle that it can be recovered with the throttle imo you've lost it to a point you're never going to right the car with any technique beyond just coming to a stop with the brakes and mayeb throttle if you want to try avoid any armco


Just to give you an idea of what the clio does at high speed if you keep the throttle stuck when the back end goes a bit, messy driving on my part but hey... start about4:53

[video]https://youtu.be/j4c88I-sIR8?t=4m53s[/video]

 

[Tutuur]

Thanks for the advice! I'm not expecting it to come that far but i was just wondering.

i know planting the throttle down and steering in the direction you want to go is the best solution but you also know what happens when the backend suddenly grips.

i've seen way too many people trying to catch a slip resulting in hitting the barriers on the opposite side of what they where sliding into.

I've had this on the ring once with my Williams, when entering Wehrseifen i let off the throttle a bit, the rear started to come out so i adjusted for that and the result was the backend breaking out to the other side badly! I then stabbed the brakes and came to a stop backwards along the inside curbstones. Lucky me!

Left me with a pretty good pic though

As you can see i tried to recover it but if it gripped at that pont i'm sure i would've been heading straight into the barriers!

 

[CallorFold]

That's an awesome "action-shot" of the Williams!

 

[Tutuur]

I know, i'm glad they cought me on it!

i'm still blown away by how cool i look, my heartrate told something different