[Blobby]

Resurrecting an old thread, but I found a very applicable answer. I rode some electric go-carts this weekend that claimed 45mph... and I believe it. Lots of hairpin turns and such... The cart spent probably a quarter of the time sliding. It only took a couple laps to get the feel for it. It was surprisingly intuitive. Go-carts are probably many times easier to control than cars, but it kinda answered my question.

[cdrptrks]

Originally Posted by Blobby

So do you just learn to drift/oversteer/under steer in empty parking lots in the rain? I imagine that’s different than breaking traction at 60mph but it’s probably a start. This really makes me wonder how so many folks (except for the mustang drivers of course) can floor it out of a parking lot in a power slide up to 50mph… or is it more intuitive than it seems?

Autocross is the safest legal way to try it out if you don't live near any empty curvy roads with safe flat runoff area but try to sign up for a practice event or double runs or extra runs at the end if you can to get more runs to practice. Don't be afraid to ask for other(s) to ride with you to give you pointers/coaching after the run. In Houston, SCCA has an autocross rookie school once per year where they have experienced autocross drivers to instruct from your passenger seat through about 5 different drills like constant radius turn for oversteer and understeer, slalom, and others before combining it all into an actual autocross course. There's classroom instruction too.

It becomes intuitive with practice. Higher speed oversteer tends to give you less time to react before you pass the point of no return and there can be higher consequences if you spin or overcorrect at higher speeds but you can feel the oversteer the same regardless of the speed so it is best to start out practicing a lower speeds.

You can grid at the back of a track day and do a slow out lap and/or drive slowly through the hot pits if you catch a group of cars to get more space on track to experiment with these things too but beware of the rules in case there is a limit to how many spins you can have per event and you will probably get black flagged for intentionally drifting every corner at an HPDE event.

[cdrptrks]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Hey krops, brother, aren't tracks full of other cars you continuously have to watch out for? Where on earth can you realistically have a track to yourself and experiment with these maneuvers?

I always wondered how to even get started when you aren't alone and there is almost no room for errors, because you'll slide out or into the wall, wreck your car and potentially others', too, and this is notwithstanding all the cost. Zero road course experience, honest question.

There are flaggers to alert other cars behind you if you lose control so you are generally pretty safe with a 5-10 second gap to the car behind you but it depends on how much runoff and how many blind corners a particular track has. There will often be tire smoke or a cloud of dirt dust to alert you that someone ahead lost control, sometimes before you see a yellow flag. Tracks are usually at least 2 lanes wide so you can generally drive around someone stopped on track without leaving the track unless they end up stopped completely sideways after a spin in a narrow part of the track. If you slow down before reaching someone blocking the track, it should be easy to drive through the grass to get around them without losing control of your car. Autocross is also quite a bit cheaper which is another reason it makes a good starting point but the amount of time you drive the car is much lower than at an HPDE event.

[N Camarolina]

Originally Posted by Blobby

Resurrecting an old thread, but I found a very applicable answer. I rode some electric go-carts this weekend that claimed 45mph... and I believe it. Lots of hairpin turns and such... The cart spent probably a quarter of the time sliding. It only took a couple laps to get the feel for it. It was surprisingly intuitive. Go-carts are probably many times easier to control than cars, but it kinda answered my question.

You are asking a very worthwhile question. I've had the same one, albeit from the interest of learning oversteer control in case it happens while I'm tracking it.

I've now had a chance to do skidpad exercises twice at my local track (VIR) and it has helped a lot to build both my experience and comfort level. You are going about 25-30 mph around a circle when you induce oversteer, but it should translate to faster speed with the caveats previously mentioned here.
I've done go karts a lot and it's way easier to catch oversteer on that because weight transfer is minimal and steering wheel ratio is fast so doesn't take much counter steering to catch.

If you can't get seat time on a skid pad near you, I'd suggest a large, unobstructed parking lot in the rain. Turn off all the nannies (especially stability control) and start driving in a circle (maybe a 30 ft diameter) at about 25 mph. Slowly increase speed by 1mph until the car just short of understeering, then blip the throttle a little (just enough) to get the back end step out and start rotating. Return throttle input to where it was before the blip and practice counter steering the right amount until you can catch the rear (it will take more counter steer than you think). Look where you want the car to go (you won't be looking straight ahead once the rear end steps out), as this will help turn the wheel the correct amount. If blipping the throttle causes understeer (front end slides) instead of oversteer, you were going too fast prior to the blip (so slow down a little and try again).

The other key element to understand is that catching the rear with counter steer is only half of the battle to "save" the car. The very instant that you manage to catch the rear (stop the rear end from rotating), you need to very quickly return the wheel to the "normal" position (the position it should be in if the rear end hadn't stepped out). If you don't do this second step fast enough, the car will over correct in the opposite direction and you'll be fish-tailing. On the skidpad exercise, your goal would be to catch the rear end (stop the rotation once it steps out) and then quickly turn the wheel back to the correct position to keep going around the circle in a non sliding fashion. After you master that, you can then move up to trying drifting (after the blip, use slightly more constant throttle to help keep the car momentum up, then just use the steering wheel to counter steer and make small adjustments as needed to keep the rear end hanging out while you go around the circle; work the wheel, not the throttle).

Hope this helps.

[Need4Camaro]

I know this sounds crazy, but playing Forza Horizon Motorsports with a steering wheel, shifter, clutch and pedal with force feedback has really built up my confidence when feeling to car start to slide.