Extreme and defensive driving. Dmitry Aleksandrovich Liskin

you need to immediately return the steer to the “straight” position.

      Exercise 2. Create oversteer on a front-wheel-drive car at the entrance to a long corner (arc) with help of “throttle+brake” technique. Repeating the training, try to gradually increase speed of entering the corner.

      Exercise 3. On a rear-wheel-drive car, press the throttle pedal at the exit of a corner, to trigger drift. Without releasing the throttle pedal, sharply hit the brake pedal with your left foot, to eliminate the drift. After stopping drifting release the pedals and restore trajectory by the steer motions. Repeating the exercise, determine angle of drift, more than which the technique “throttle+brake” does not work. Limit effort on the throttle pedal if there is a skid of rear loaded wheel and efficiency of “throttle+brake” technique decreases.

      Remember that on a front-wheel-drive car one time pressed the throttle and brake pedals increases steerability, while on a rear-wheel-drive car – they decrease it. If this is the first time when you are perform the technique, limit speed and provide braking distance enough in all possible directions.

      Exercise 4. On rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive cars, prepared for drift, the exercises “ring”, “eight” and the passage of a hairpin with drift of the rear axle will be useful. Rings should be selected in different diameters to work out different speed modes.

      We press the throttle pedal with pulses, as if groping for optimal traction, and at the same time we steer. Our goal will be a stable retention of trajectory radius and minimal fluctuations in drift angle.

      Exercise 5. Go through a 180-degree turn (hairpin) with the rear axle drifting. At entrance to the corner provoke drift by rocking, handbraking or including a low gear.

      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.

      Practical advices for a driver

      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.

      Turnaround while reversing (police turn)

      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