driving question, re oversteering

The most likely reason you're sliding is because you panicked and let off the gas and/or hit the brakes. Increase throttle just enough to transfer more weight aft and stop the yaw. This is counterintuitive, of course, and you probably won't pull it off unless you've trained your muscles to act faster than your brain, by getting some track instruction and doing it under controlled conditions. Until you're trained, make sure you give yourself plenty of room to brake before entering the corner.

If the tail gets truly hung out past saving, push in the clutch and lock all four wheels by standing on the brake pedal as hard as you can; you'll still spin, but it will improve your chances of staying on the road and out of the trees. Even better, take it a little slower so you won't need to discover where that point it.

Hi!

I do that once in a while. :-)

Correct, you want more weight in the rear, which involves accelerating while turning into the spin. The amount of acceleration varies depending on many factors. Braking is the worst thing to do once the rear of your car wants to swap places with the front end.

You always steer into the spin, whether on wet asphalt, ice, or whatever. The Miata allows for quite a bit of throttle steer as well. It just takes practice, too much acceleration or too much steering into the turn will have bad results as well.

The ultimate is to go to a good driving school. Autocross runs help too, but a large open parking lot and some sacrificial tires can teach you a lot about the limits and recovery abilities of your Miata.

Pat

The rest of these guys pretty much have it right, and you seem to already get the physics of it, but be careful in a Miata. The Miata, unlike a LOT of RWD cars, has a fairly neutral steer. This means that if you're drifting, it's likely to be a four-wheel, not two wheel drift (oversteer = rear wheel only drift, of course typical in a RWD car). The best way to learn how to control a four-wheel drift, especially in a Miata, is to go four-wheel drifting. Buuuut....most of us aren't rich enough to afford a driving school, especially one that would let us drive our Miata.

The poor man's solution follows: if you can stand the dust, find a safe, flat, dirt parking lot and set up cones. Or find some very nice but wet pavement, and set up cones. Throw yourself "out of control" in as many different ways as you can think of, and try all the suggestions here. Once you find the ones that work really well, do them over and over again, until you don't even realize you were in a (over)steer until you've already corrected it. Note that both of the above terrains work differently from each other and ice, snow, leaves, etc. Remember "mu" from physics class? Yeah!

My best tip for this kind of driving: "don't be afraid of the throttle." If you trail throttle (go from throttling to zero throttle quickly), you throw weight forward and the back end comes out. But you already knew that ;-). Also, using moderate throttle modulation can give you precise control over the angle of the slide. Actually, careful not to "trail clutch," i.e. snap the clutch up, either. This will engage a sort of transmission-based braking as well...

Note: This sort of driving may be illegal in your area, please consult with the local authorities before attempting the above. ;-)

-r0ll

There is a lot of useful advice here, but many people are of the mindset that you can not be a good driver without taking courses. That is incorrect, imo. Driving school is always great if you can afford it, but there will always be some people that grasp it naturally and others that no amount of training will make them a great driver.

One of the best drivers that I know personally has never taken a course of any sort.

I first got interested in sports cars when I was 17 and got one when I was 18. I could barely afford the car, performance driving school was not a possibility.

I bought a book by Bob Bondurant, where he explains exactly what the suspension is doing when the car is accelerating, braking & turning, along with many other things explained in a clear and easy to understand fashion. Between studying his written advice and applying it in a parking lot, (and on the street), I figured it out easily enough, and I have yet to spin a Miata in almost 9 years of driving one.

Pat

So that includes no track time? 8;)

-- Larry

You misunderstand. "Both feet in" is what you do once you've realized you can't save the car from a spin. You can't steer, because all four tires are locked and sliding. The car is ballistic, but its slide is predictable and fairly short. All this does is improve your chances of not leaving the road and getting killed. In fact, I imagine lots of lives would be saved if people would stop trying to save it earlier, and just ride it out with locked wheels.

So, when should you give up? Unfortunately, the only teacher is experience--you gotta spin a few to learn. When I suggested track instruction, I didn't mean a formal driving school like Barber or Bondurant. Many road courses (and some Miata clubs) offer open track days, with volunteer instructors who ride with you and coach you around the track. The cost is typically $200-400 for a full day, and is the absolute best buy for your performance dollar. If you really want to go faster, a day at the track is worth more than all the intakes, exhausts, and other doodads you can add to a Miata. It's also even more fun than you would imagine.

Note that most tracks require a real rollbar in convertibles. If you can't swing that, maybe you could share a car with another Miata owner. There are good possibilities for birthday or Christmas gifts here...

That last group lives here and most of them were out on the streets today! :-(

larry, thanks again for continuing my education. mike

Hey, we've got more tha enough Larrys around here already without Lanny getting in on the action...

-- Larry

enough>larry,

Nope, track days are too social for me. :-)

I have spun both Miatas I have owned and a couple of others that I was test-driving, but it has been intentional every time so far and usually not a full 360 spin.

Pat