Flying Finn

Thinking about it, and especially remembering practicing on ice with loooooooooong slide etc. it makes some sense. Previously I haven't really bothered to think about the process, I've just done it but the way you explain it, makes sense. I can now better try to explain to the students when they ask, thanks!

Flying Finn

Petteri but friends call me Petu.

I completely agree with being ahead of the car, if not, pad things tend to happen. You really need to react instantly and that's where learning from the books ends (even though some of them can be very helpful), for that you need to spend time sliding, correcting and spinning. That's why I always recommend to go out and practice when it rains and also have suggested that our region would do skid pad practices (i.e. in Moroso you can get the skid pad wet).

I've often explained to my student that it's some times advisable to go off road instead of trying to "make it". The video posted just few days ago (about that 928 spin) was a good example where he was basically in similar situation in where I was but he decided to try and stay on track instead of correcting and then running little wide and inhis case, it unfortunately resulted into a wall.

Sean F

The left hander at LRP is a place where you see to many spins because of this. People try to save it when what they could do is just open their hands and head straight towards the apex of the right hander coming out of the essess. Just give up the next turn, no need to try and get back on line.

cr207

ok here is my spin/drift that i didn't catch, I thought I had it until i didn't get the steering wheel back to center in time and ended up going off at LRP. tell me what you think. This happened this past weekend, it was a little cold around 40 degrees and windy. This happened at the end of big bend.

http://www.nycs4.com/images/thespinatlrp.mov (right click and save target as)

Veloce Raptor

Down here, this happens routinely between 2 & 3, 4 & 5, 7 & 8, and 12 & 13 at TWS, and exiting Ricochet and Big Bend on the old MSR 1.7 course.

Sean F

Looks like you were way behind the car. It wasn't that you didn't get back to center it was that you never caught up to the rotation. You needed some correction much earlier than you put in. I never put all four wheels on the concrete in big bend either - cold or warm day (but especially on a cold day).

Larry Herman

What happened is that you were very slow to react to the impending spin. You could see in the video that the car starts to rotate well before you make any correction. You need to be able to feel that rotation starting and react to it before you can ever see it, or you are too late. Once you fall behind in a tankslapper, you really never catch up until the car stops.

When are you reacting fast enough? When you correct for an impending spin before your instructor/passenger realizes it's happening.

Flying Finn

Very true, often you can watch outside and see a car going nicely through te turn (maybe little, very very little sideway), yet inside the steering wheel is going rapidly left & right.
For example the T17 on my video clip, looking from outside, the car was basically not going sideways at all, yet you see me correcting quite a bit (and you can hear the revs too).

TR6

Rookie question... Define "tankslapper" for me. Is that a reference to the tail swinging out? I'm trying to learn all I can from these threads and watching the videos.

reno808

larry nice save. how did you get so good driving in the rain?

Flying Finn

That's when you first slide, over correct ending up sliding to the other side, then again back to the other, then other, the other... Ends up with car finally settling and driver continuing driving or in a spin.

In motocross we call similar thing "collarbone zig zag" because it often ends up driver flying over the handlebars and breaking his collarbone (have done it once...)

Greg Smith

You were a little slow at recognizing the tail coming around, be you did catch it for a little bit. The thing that turned it from some oversteer to a spin was that you held the correction for too long. Once the car grabs again you need to quickly get the steering wheel straight. The car will actually almost do this itself if you loosen your grip of the steering wheel and let it slide your your hands, you have to be able to stop that at the right time though.

Phokaioglaukos

Is it just me, or did others download this and play it only to find that it is upside down? Weird.

Flying Finn

Did you check if your monitor is upside down?

I downloaded it again and it is fine. What program are you using for viewing it? Maybe you should download the latest codec, you can download them here.

Larry Herman

Funny, it must have been running backwards for me. It was really cool to see Finn backing it off the grass and right down the straight!