Whats causing spin out?
 

So After spinning out at the 2008 speed festival, i've been trying to figure out every cause to my spinning out. JUst wondering if anyone has knowledge of the cause. Im wonder if it is:

1.I turn the wheel to hard/far
2. Traction control is on ( watch a video of a guy driving, car infront of him spun out, and he said "Prob had his tranction control on) i don't know..
3. Tire tread was horrible
4. car just oversteers
5. debris on floor

Any ideas??

My guess is any one of #s 1,2,3, or 5. Or a combination thereof. Could be other things as well such as alignment, tire pressure, etc. Could also be those Chrome Grills... ;)

But, these cars do not have Oversteer built into them. Just the opposite, they understeer with the factory setup and tires for safety's sake.

I must have missed the part where you explained the spin out. They can happen for a number of reasons.. usually it is operator error ;) Please tell us a bit more (or a link or something).. thanks.

Agreed - I took #1 to explain Pilot Error... :)

Yea for sure it is always driver error, but there are other contributers too. My first time. I took the turn which was approx 100 degrees at about 60 mph, power slid a bit, then tried to correct it and spun out. bleh.. i really think something kept me from correcting the slide other than just driver error.

100 degree corner in and of itself is fine... since you don't mention the length of corner to indicate if 60mph was too fast or if your technique was off, or what was before or after the turn... if you stayed on the gas or lifted.. or tapped the brakes.. or turned too sharp..

The more details in which you can explain the scenario the better equipped we are to help you along.

In the end, you are balancing your car on 4 small tire contact patches. Each patch is, in all likelyhood, no larger than an 8.5x11 piece of paper and more likely, much smaller. Think about it... 3000lbs and only such a tiny amount of contact with the road. How you manage that contact is important. Transfering weight from back to front to side to side...

re-reading, I do see this: "powerslid and tried to correct it"..

hmm.. so the car was oversteering? Was it oversteering immediately upon entering the corner? half way through? just the tail end? What were you doing to correct it.. playing with the throttle? steering? hit the brakes? What were the conditions of the surface? smooth? rough? concrete? pavement? was there any banking in the corner? was it too your advantage (on camber) or banked away from you (off camber)? or both? What are the conditions of your tires? Same brand/type front and rear?

I spun out last fall at Driver Skills day, much to the surprise of both the instructor in the car with me and myself. Some other instructors asked me what happened and I told them, "too much speed for that much turn". But I also had just switched to new All Season tires and they hadn't been scrubbed in yet, and I was running them at slightly high tire pressures, all of which may have been a factor. Either way, driver error.

So - what kind of tires do you have, what kind of shape are they in, and what air pressures are you running?

no matter what it is, no matter the tires, the turn, etc. it was the incorrect driver input at the wrong time.

so in your case. was the turn off camber? did you throttle lift? did you dramatically get back onto the gas? basically any action that unsettles a car, like shifting weight quickly, will cause a spin.

more info is needed to precisely tell you what you did. my guess. is that you went in too hot, you were pushing, or freaking out, and then you did a full throttle lift, while already in a turn.

front tires like 65% tread Yokohama's ypk520 i think, rear perelli's 265 about 15- 20 % tread left. tire pressure front 50 psi max, i was running about 43, rear was 51 psi max, and was running about 45 psi

Stock camber to my favor, road was on the California Speedway Track a bit of scraps on the floors. I didn't hit any bumps
the spin occured about half way through the turn. I did let off the accelerator pretty quickly and hit the breaks.

Traction control was on, and i did turn pretty hard.

Upon correcting my turn, i let go of the gas slightly hit the breaks and tried to correct the steering only to lose control.

Thanks for all your advice people!!

WOW, talk about the perfect storm : ) hahha. different tires and different tread wear. That alone isn't good, but you can still drive just fine with that. Its just not preferred.

What you did wrong was: letting go of the gas quickly. That put the weight up front, and if you are already mid turn, the rear looses grip, then slides out. To top it off, you hit the brakes, sending even more weight up front. So your rear was really light.

When correcting, you need throttle to correct, instead you braked.

I would use brakes as a last rest after the back end already is starting to come around. You can instead use more throttle to get the weight to the back, and counter steer.

But when you were mid turn, and you sensed something was wrong, you immediately lift, and braked, thus making your situation even worse. Had you stepped on more gas, and corrected, you likely would have been fine.

A few times out at an autox, and you should have this skill mastered : ) Or at least learn how to attempt it : )

Ohh, what is your rear toe like? In about 1/16 per side?

Why do cars spin?

The simple answer is less traction at the rear than the front.

Well, why does that happen?

Many reasons but here is the most common - LIFT THROTTLE OVERSTEER.

Lift throttle oversteer means that while in a turn the driver suddenly lifts off the gas. This causes weight transfer to the front wheels and away from the rear wheels. The front wheels suddenly gain more traction and the rears suddenly lose it. If the rears lose enough then the rear end of the car goes straight but the front turns and voila - spin.

Similar results can also be generated by sudden release of clutch in a turn, sudden brake application in a turn, sudden unwinding of the wheel when the front end is pushing.

The second biggest cause is - POWER ON OVERSTEER.

Power on oversteer is caused but too sudden an application of the throttle while turning. The accelerative force of the motor combined with the force of the turn exceeds the grip of the tires and around you come.

Note that all of these are driver preventable errors. Looking to solve the problem by changing something with the car is the wrong place to start. Traction control will NOT spin your car but you can.

wow good advice benny and renzop. THanks guys!! im pretty new to autox and i want to do it more. Thanks for everything. NOt to sure what my toe is but stock should be 1/16 right

I was always told the cause of my most of my handling issues with cars was because of the loose nut at the steering wheel, maybe you have the same problem... ;)