Dmitry Liskin - Extreme and defensive driving

At exit of the corner maintain drift by alternately pressings the throttle pedal. Try to get maximum acceleration at exit of the hairpin.

Exercise 6. Another useful exercise for training driving a car in a drift is the “eight”. In the middle of the eight we perform the so-called reversal: we accelerate car, then release the throttle pedal and rotate the steering wheel in the opposite direction when moving to the next half of the eight.

If there is feedback on the steer it should start to rotate itself against the direction of drift. The feedback force depends on the castor in a car and settings of the feedback force in a car simulator.

Exercise 7. Try to cause the front axle to drift while reverse moving by sharply turn of the steer. Do not forget to squeeze the clutch, so that the engine does not stall during skidding.

1. Use light footwear with soft, non-thick, flat soles for driving. Rightly chose footwear will help you feel the pedals better. In any case do not drive a car in “flip-flops”, slippers or shoes with a long heel, this can lead to an accident situation. If footwear has a heel, it should not be long. Shoelaces are also dangerous. Scarves, ties, long sleeves, hair, and wired headphones can also interfere for driving.

2. Wear gloves while driving. In gloves with a rubberized palm (so-called “dipped” gloves) or leather gloves hands cling better to the steering wheel and the gear lever, and hand tires less during driving. If you are a novice racer, you may get « dipped” gloves for training, which you can buy at any building supplies store.

3. Place your hands on the steering wheel at 9 and 15 o’clock or 10 and 14 o’clock (according to the clock face). In these positions you can comfortably rotate the steering wheel within about 200 degrees. If you need to turn the steering wheel at a greater angle – continue rotation of the steer with change of hands position. A steering error will be crossing of hands in the lower sector of the steering wheel.

4. Use right steering wheel. Spokes of the steer should not prevent hands from being placed in the 9 and 15 o’clock or 10 and 14 o’clock positions and fingers from squeezing the steering wheel in these positions. It is possible placing of the spokes, in which they pass under or above hands – so you will feel right position of hands on the steer. It is not recommended to use a steering wheel cover, as it will dull feels, received from the steering wheel.

5. Take into account condition of the road surface to choose speed of movement. Let us assume, that you are on an unfamiliar road or road state may have changed significantly recently due to weather conditions. You may estimate condition of the road surface with help of braking with wheels locking. At low speed (10—15 km/h), hardly press the brake pedal to lock the wheels, and wait for stop. The worse the grip, the greater braking distance. When you get more experience a short-time wheels lock will be enough to estimate a road surface. This skill is very useful in winter: for example, a situation may be when the road is snow covered, and there – is bare ice under the snow, which a driver does not suspect.

6. Do not listen to music when driving. This takes away your attention and impairs your concentration on driving. The same applies to conversations on cell phone. A missed beep or even a scream can cause inconvertible events.

7. Do not move in neutral gear. Some drivers, trying to save on fuel, move downhill and enter corners in neutral gear. This makes driving a car unsafe. Disconnecting the engine from the transmission makes it impossible to control a car with help of engine’s torque. The throttle pedal – is a very important element of controls in both front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive vehicles.

8. Do not keep your hand on the gear lever. Many drivers drive in city traffic a car with a standard gear box in a relaxed pose, when left hand is on the steering wheel and right hand – is on the gear lever. Both hands should be placed on the steering wheel. Right hand moves to the gear lever only when it is necessary to change the gear.

Police turn is familiar to many from films. It is rumored that drivers of the special services keep it on board. Police turn allows you to quickly turn a car around with help of front axle drift, which can be created while driving in reverse.

Despite seeming from the outside difficulty of the technique, it is quite simple to perform. Consider performing the technique on front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive cars.

Rear-wheel-drive

Firstly it is necessary to select the reverse gear and accelerate along a straight section of trajectory. It should be noted, that during reversing after releasing the throttle pedal the engine starts braking. Engine braking – is a braking torque (some kind of braking effort). Braking on the rear axle while driving in reverse creates understeer, similar to how high braking effort on the front wheels causes sliding of the front axle when driving ahead. Therefore after performing acceleration it is necessary to disconnect the engine and transmission before performing the technique.

To produce drift of the front axle, you need to quickly turn the steer. After drift occurs, wasted no time, it is necessary to immediately return the steer to the straight position. When longitudinal speed will be zero, the first gear can be switched on. Let us show at the figure performance of turnaround.

Initially we were moving in a straight line in reverse, but deviated from the straight line and after performing turnaround left the marked lane. Drifting of the front axle did not begin immediately: at beginning turn of the steer the car deviates from straight trajectory.

To stay in the lane, during acceleration it is needful to slightly deviate from straight line movement with a short movement of the steer to the side, opposite to direction of turning. It is important to do this during acceleration – if there is no traction on the rear axle when the steer deviates from the “straight” position, the car will start to turn around. Preliminary shift in the opposite side not only increases space for maneuver, but also intensify further sliding of the front axle due to rocking. Let us show at the figure performance of reverse turn with a preliminary deviation.

As you can see, we succeed to stay within the marked lane.

If a car does not respond well to performing police turn, you can use at one time pressing of the throttle and brake pedals. Engine torque, transmitted to the rear axle, will prevent the rear wheels from braking, but high braking effort on the front wheels will lock them, causing a car to turn around. Let us illustrate at the figure reverse turn perform using the throttle and brake pedals.