In-car lift-off oversteer on motorway.

superjosh9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqqdDnXg1xQ

good video - some guy obviously records all of his driving - and here's something he must have been glad to have caught (bdum). He's driving along a motorway when rounding a right bend, it appears that its slightly more severe than he was thinking. Now behold the joys of what happens when you lift off the throttle in the middle of a bend at speed!

I went looking for this video because I had a similar moment ages ago. Lifting off wasnt my problem on that occasion, similar looking catch though.

copacetic

feckin idiot, driving like a muppet and loses control, pure luck there was no-one else around for him to crash into and kill.

SV

Nice catch..

fair play.

cormie

This is the kind of thing people should be taught to avoid and to deal with when learning to drive.

He didn't seem to be going that fast at the time of the skid, he was going fast early in the vid but slowed down when it happened. Where is it?

Lord Nikon

Tbh, he was going fast, but can't figure our what caused the back to go out like that. The bend wasn't that hard.

Nice save all the same.

david

Amateur Nearly lost it with that over agressive counter steer!! Happened to me when I first started driving at 50kph in a town!! Thats probably because my old corsa pulled agressively towards the ditch, only had power steering to the left lol :rolleyes:

Fozzie Bear

He did really well to hold that in fairness. I would have been stuck in the barrier. I'm better the underpants were messed though.

cormie

What did he say as he got back into the car? Something about slicks?

peasant

I don't think that that was lift-off oversteer ...oily patch on the road or something like that seems more likely

Loveless

I think he said "Ich weiB nicht.." which is German for "I don't know.." as he couldn't see anything mechanically wrong with the car.

cormie

If you look at it at 0:38, he passes under a sign which looks like a hazard warning, could be something to do with the road conditions?

Does the song go "I will be dizzyyyy" after the spin?

2 Espressi

Could have been a nasty tankslapper, lucky guy!

superjosh9

at 48-50s he holds the wheel steady for the bend
at 51s he straightens *slightly* and then at 52s brings the wheel right again, at that same moment I would say that he lifted off the throttle. And he was fairly moving.

I think his reactions were pretty good - easy to criticise - but it's not as though he would have had any practice. Tis totally different to driving lap after lap on some track where you can gradually explore the limits of a car. In Sweden, as part of the driving test, you have to drive on a skid-pan and you are taught all of this. And it's many hours long..

In Ireland, you drive at 30 mph for the test and only *then* are you allowed to hit the M50 at 120kph. Crazy. Anyway, it's been done to death I suppose, but it would be nice if they catered for real-world driving.

btw, it's an old A4 right?

Here's what we need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTdeXA98lIw&feature=related

geoff29

ok - that's a little weird - exact same thing happened to me the other day - but it was drizzle/raining.

Out in Wicklow, wasn't going very fast, but fast enough. Narrowly avoided a 360 degree spin, back of car went light and darted left about 60 degrees. As soon as the car got away from me, the first thing I did was check my mirrors to see if anyone was behind - thankfully no one was there! Thought that was an odd reaction. Have had it happen to me before. I didn't brake, because I was concerned that I'd lose steering, was very greasy and thought lock up would happen. I just kept steering the car like this guy, looking for the balance/weighting-up so that I could steer it back again and look for a point of abrasion to get traction. Was downhill, narrow road and I narrowly avoided barrier/trees/kerbs/wet-grass - which I thought would break the steering rack. Had images of me going on the grass, increasing speed and hitting a tree sideways.

Was quite happy with my reactions though I was surprised by how long it kept going on - prob like this guy - seemed an age. Was disappointed I couldn't catch it sooner. I've done all the go-karting/track-day stuff and I'm known to throw the car about. As well, I've studied engineering degree/mechanics since I could walk/talk!! I think I thought I knew it all, and the cold hard facts are that I don't. This has definitely made me a better driver because now I'm questioning speed/actions all the time - I'm definitely paying a lot more attention - ready for a what-if moment.

Everyone should be made to watch the above video. What if this guy was on a narrow road with two-way traffic? I really don't think there was any oil or whatever - I'd agree with op that it looks like lift-off oversteer.

Btw, I was driving a rwd volvo 940, (similar to op's,?). Prob weighs 1.5 tonnes, thank God no one was near me, or walking out or anything. And I mean that. I'm very lucky.

cormie

Scary alright. Anywhere to go practice dealing with this kind of thing under tuition? My truck drivin friend said if this happens, to stick it straight into the next gear below and accelerate?

geoff29

LIGHTNING wrote: »

We do Skid car control up in Mondello, we use a VW jetta with shopping trolley wheels on each corner of the car that can be raised or lowered. This can be controlled by the instructor in the passenger side. By raising the rear wheels you can simulate a loss of traction in the rear wheels. The same can be done with the front wheels. Its quite good fun and it teaches you some good car control.

In general in a front wheel drive car if the back steps out just apply a heap of power and it will *usually* pull itself out of trouble. Just make sure you dont do it in a rear wheel drive car!

http://www.mondello.ie/cars/?id=43

Some good info there - Lightning, any way you could campaign to get a driving section like this onto the test?!?! also, coming from your skid pan, what do you make of the original video?

Ronan|Raven

I wish they did teach how to deal with skids as part of the test here, something that could save ones life one day. He did really well to get it back, I had a similar incident last year unfortunatly I ran out of road and a large drop awaited me Looking back on it I was very lucky.

cormie

Looks like a strange set up. I guess I'd be at extra high risk in a high top van with RWD :eek:

cormie

Can't see any mention of price for the skid course on the site. How much is it? How long does the course last and are there other aspects of losing control covered other than skidding (can't think of any off hand myself at the mo though:pac:)

woop

Im pretty sure he said "oil slicks"
he did do well to hold it though

Biro

The A4 never had 3 vents in the middle. The A8 did, but that doesn't really look like an A8.

Hal1

Woah, brown trousers moment there. The RSA will probably use that in their road safety campaign in the run up the christmas, except it will feature a dog flying through the air in teh direction of the driver :pac:.

Type 17

Well held, that man...

Possible scenario: he hit a diesel spill which came out of someone else's filler cap as they previously cornered with an over-full tank.

Diesel is worse than black ice - a few years ago, I went to overtake a 40 km/h tractor on the N8 near Horse & Jockey - last oncoming car passed, I pulled out and accelerated in third and the car squirmed everywhere. The ABS kicked in as soon as I touched the brake pedal - the whole road was a skating rink if you braked, accelerated or made any steering input... I called the Gardai to advise them.

Matt Simis

superjosh9 wrote: »

at 48-50s he holds the wheel steady for the bend
at 51s he straightens *slightly* and then at 52s brings the wheel right again, at that same moment I would say that he lifted off the throttle. And he was fairly moving.

snip

btw, it's an old A4 right?

You posted your first post as if you knew something for sure about this video (ie some background we dont). I cant believe you would put your own spin on it and hang him out to dry (you dont even know if he was "speeding" or just driving legally at speed) purely on conjecture.

This did the rounds on VAG forums already, presented as a good recovery from an oil/diesel slick perhaps aided by Quattro. The car is either an S4 or A4, the exhaust is either not stock or its a V6 and the engine note is picked up weirdly by the camera mic.

eringobragh

He held it well!! When I was doing a rally course I'd a similar scenario and I held it similar to that.

He was lifting it but couldn't see the oversteer I agrre with the hazard signs and a possible oil spill??

Yakult

Happened to me a few weeks ago. serious weight in the back of my car and I stupidly was going too fast for the bend and the back slipped out. I was looking at the ditch head on nearly lol. Thankfully I knew what to do or I probably wouldnt be here right now.

maidhc

Biro wrote: »

The A4 never had 3 vents in the middle. The A8 did, but that doesn't really look like an A8.

The car in the Video is a mk1 A4 (1995 to 2001), no doubt about it.

It seems more rapid than the 90bhp TDI one we had though! An S4 perhaps?

superjosh9

Matt Simis wrote: »

You posted your first post as if you knew something for sure about this video (ie some background we dont). I cant believe you would put your own spin on it and hang him out to dry (you dont even know if he was "speeding" or just driving legally at speed) purely on conjecture.

This did the rounds on VAG forums already, presented as a good recovery from an oil/diesel slick perhaps aided by Quattro. The car is either an S4 or A4, the exhaust is either not stock or its a V6 and the engine note is picked up weirdly by the camera mic.

that's great, no one else seemed to have a problem, I brought this up because I thought it was interesting. I looked at it once and then posted what I saw. I also said that it was well held - what on earth is wrong with you - why would you go picking a fight for absolutely no reason? this is ridiculous I never said he was speeding - it's probably an autobahn in germany - again - what is wrong with you? I don't read other forums.

But rest assured I'll be careful not to bother posting new topics in the future.

ps. again. what is wrong with you?

Matt Simis

superjosh9 wrote: »

ps. again. what is wrong with you?

Im not picking fights, your post came across as besmirching some random stranger.Consider that if someone searches that video in a years time and stumbles across your interpretation it may skew the video is viewed.

Dont let being called up on something stop you from starting threads, its only an opinion after all.

Lumen

Catching a slide is natural and easy - just steer into the slide. It's knowing what to do next that's the tricky bit.

Without practice (or natural some god-like talent) the "natural" thing to do is wind off the lock too late and spin the other way, or fishtail down the road mumbling obscenities until the drama ends one way or another.

TBH in a modern car with a well sorted chassis and stability control I'm not convinced of the need to learn this sort of thing. The electronics usually sort it out for you, as long as you don't panic and are smooth with the controls.

Driving on snow, ice etc is obviously a bit different.

Zulu

Matt Simis wrote: »

if someone searches that video in a years time and stumbles across your interpretation it may skew the video is viewed

:rolleyes:

At last, a champion of integrity on the internet!
How's that working out for you?