countersteering, please help
 

Hey guys the other night cruising after a football game, I made a left turn after a light not on the gas very hard and the road most have had gravel on it or something, but I was accelerating smoothly and the rear end kicked out to the right tires squealing like i had hit the turn at 50 with my foot to the floor. I let off the gas and countersteered bringing the rear end back, but then it kicked out slightly to the left and my would have been cool looking recovery turned into a hurry up and straighten the car out before the next turn. This happened to me before when I hit a blind turn too fast and didn't realize how sharp it was. But just the other night I wasn't going very fast or accelerating very hard, so something slick must've been on the road. So my question is am I not countersteering enough or am I doing too much when the rear end kicks the other way? Any advice is greatly appreciated, the 7 wil lget loose if you aren't careful, but hopefully I'll have new wheels and tires soon with a better contact patch.

Too much. Corrective steering too much creates a slide in the other direction, or over correcting.

Snap oversteer is an inherent problem with the 1st gens, 2nd gens do it too, not as much though. Not over correcting takes practice. The issue is when the rear tires regain traction, the car tries to straighten out on it's own, while the driver has already begun to correct. Keeping the rear end loose and feathering the throttle can alleviate the snap oversteer, but as I said, it take practice.

You need to become aware of not only when the rear is about to break loose, but also when it is about to regain traction.

...I'll bet that you let off of the gas when the car broke loose. Or, god forbid, maybe went for the brake!

It may seem wrong, but try the same maneuver in a controlled environment and keep a little "gas" flowing. The kick-back occurs when the tires re-gain their grip and the car is not on-track/the front wheels are still cut. You need to keep the rear wheels "loose" until you get the car corrected. THEN, you back off and let the back tires re-connect with the road.

With a little practice, you can pull your car out of a slide like this... and look like a PRO!

I've learned in my experience with this light car is that when you start to oversteer, just aim for the road in front of you versus trying to counter steer. Usually over correction happens before under correction. When say my tires get wet after a car wash i've had to be careful with how much gas to give it. YOu just have to get used to the light weight car and the rear wheel drive and taking it slow. But if you want to master drifting then stay off the road. Not a good idea

What I did was whe nthe rear end beagan to swing loose I stayed on the gas for a second longer then jus let off and kept my feet away from the brake pedal. Thanks for the advice guys I must've had the wheel still cut to the right as the car was swinging back in line, causing it to swing the other way.

When your in your "controlled enviroment" you can play with the tire preasure too much air in the rear tire will make it step out real easy. Also you can dissconect the rear sway bar or remove it all together.

I dont use the rear bar and up the rear preasures to make it step out. I like the car to oversteer a bit on the race track you can almost steer it with the throttle.

Check your tire pressures. When this last happened to me, I discovered that one of my rear tires was low. If it continues to be an issue for you, try disconnecting the rear sway bar. This has helped a lot of people.

I don't understand, everyone says they have a snappy oversteer problem. I don't, I have a bad understeer problem and when the rear does come out it is extremly easy to control. Giving I don't have a LSD either could be why. :dunno:

Do you still have the stock tires and rims on your car? Once you kick up the size and grip of the rear tires, this becomes a non-issue except in the most extreme driving.

Although counter-intuitive, this is the correct information. Increasing air pressure to the rear will increase traction almost every time.

:cool:

the snap oversteer basically happends when you go to correct the slide but go to far, when the car starts to straighten out the front wheels are still pointed the direction you were countersteering and the back end grips really hard all at once and you usually end up in a curb or ditch.

You need to find the fine line where you use just a lil steering correction and more throtle to hold the slide, always keep your hands moving the steering wheel <---DON"T GET LAZY HERE when sliding and the rear tyres start to grip a little more, completly straighten the wheel so you will come out of the slide going straight all there is to it...

This is what I personally do when I want to 'drift' even tho I quit that a while ago this is waht I do, when aproaching a corner I put the car in second, push in the clutch take the rpm's up to the 5-7k range, right as I am about to drop the clutch I hit the brakes to wieght transfer to the front so the front has more grip and I yank the steering wheel the direction I wanna go and then let the clutch out at 5-7 range, the car will lose traction immediatly and you have to be ready to countersteer most likly one full turn towards lock, use the gas more then the steering wheel as you will prolly lose power before you run out of room to steer.
Other tips are to put the seat adjustment as close to the steering wheel as posible, FB didn't have powersteering and the wheel gets pretty heavy when you are slow speed sliding it so you need to be on top of the wheel as much as posible to do this you cannot be loungeing back sittin like a homey.