ir0nman11

I am sure all of us have seen these two corvette videos where the drivers were doing pulls and then car ended up going sideways where they crashed. How do you recover when something like this happens? So many people say 'oh he should of lifted' and others say 'he should of stayed on it'. The two videos linked here both show examples where the driver stayed on it. Something similar also happened to me while i was on 2nd gear and going about 25mph. I accelerated, steering wheel started going crazy and I was fighting to keep it straight. Unlike the guys on these two videos, I lifted, but instead of recovering, the car fishtailed hard the other way; but nevertheless the end result was the same. Any professional drivers or instructors here that can provide experience/comments?

DTOM

Simple: Don't turn off the nanny's

Bigredwing

Sorry it is beyond my capabilities or risk limit. i guess you need to find a place with enough room to not run into anything. Practice practice practice. That's probably why they call the old bold drivers professionals.

Iceaxe

This is why high performance driving schools were created... take a couple classes and learn a whole bunch of really cool stuff...

Every guy thinks he is a great driver and a great lover... but statistically half are below average.... at least you can attend a high performance driving school and fix one of the two... feel free to follow me for more pro tips... LMAO...

Elk

Steer into the slide smoothy and immediately once the slide starts.
Back off of the throttle smoothly until the tires start to catch (do not jump off of the throttle).
Keep your foot off of the brake.
Once the car responds and start coming around, smoothly dial out the counter-steer. You want the wheel steering forward once the car is back pointing in the correct direction of travel.

Drivers get into trouble when they jerk the wheel fast to counteract the slide and fail to being releasing the counter-steer once the car responds. This results in an even more aggressive slide in the opposite direction.

And as already stated, leave the nannies on. They are better than you (and me). They will assist you to straighten the car out.

ZO6 cracker

Out at RonFellowRoadCourse they teach you how to drive thru it. Just like he explained.

rrsperry

At its most fundamental, it’s throttle control. It is not, repeat NOT an on -off switch.

ir0nman11

Thank you this is helpful.

is that on the first session or the second. since i recall they need you to do a second weekend there for the more hands on stuff. and another point, I don't think they teach C7s anymore over there.

edspec

what about driving a sports car on the road they have a performance school for that?

rb185afm

When in doubt throttle out. Chopping the Throttle causes the car to regain traction in what ever direction the car is facing. If turning off the Nannies, head to a drift school and learn how to control sideways action.

Iceaxe

Absolutely... I used to teach at a high performance driving school in the 80's and we had a complete menu from full throttle racing to high performance street driving to advanced defensive driving.

10 years ago when my kids turned 16 the first thing I did was send them through a high performance street driving course, which basically teaches you how to steer out of a skid or power slide among other things. If a high performance driving school helps you avoid one accident I consider it money well spent. YMMV

FX VETTE

and street racing is frowned upon and illegal

449er

The nannies are there for a reason, because most of us need them

Walt White Coupe

For most of us average drivers on the street, as soon as the rear end breaks loose, immediately lift off of the throttle and the car will straighten itself out. The longer you stay in the throttle, the more unrecoverable the car becomes.

6spdg37s

you can only imagine how many brand new vettes, hellcats ,etc i watched smack the walls at the drag strip over the years

dvilin

Off the throttle works for me and gently turn the steering wheel into the skid direction. Kind of like driving on ice or in the snow when you lose traction.

obxchartercaptain

I'm 76 yrs old and driving a 2016 Z51 3LT Convertible...This is my 6th Corvette, all Convertibles and all bought new...All I want to say about this post is, most of the "younger" generation never learned how to DRIVE....I started to drive in the 1950's and while there weren't as many cars on the road as today we drove manual transmissions and in the winter one of our favorite pastimes was get to a school yard after a snowfall and have at it with our cars...DONUTS and SKIDS was what was happening....laugh if you want, but we LEARNED HOW TO HANDLE A AUTOMOBILE. Some of you might say we learned on a "horseless carriage" In any case, when I purchased my first NEW car, a 1965 Olds 442, I was able to handle it without a problem and then when I traded that for a new Corvette in 1967 the FUN really began....Today, I drive with all the "nannies" off and have no problem handling it....I remember on very cold morning while driving my C6 Vert on the Outer Banks of NC I made a left turn from and got into it a little to hard. I did a complete 360 and continued to drive on without missing a beat.

99vetteran

I don't know what kind of HP these Vets were making but if your in the 650 to 800 rwhp you better be running a drag radial like the MT SS or the Nitto 555r2s. You can teach all the **** you want but if you don't have a sticky tire on the rear when you go WOT like he did then this is going to happen. My Camaro was 850 plus rwhp and I was logging some street runs with my HP tuners and I was passing a car on a two lane road and got into a little too much and it kicked down and off we go, luckily the road had a wide shoulder and I used all of it to save it. Never again did I do any logging on street tires, I had the Nannys on but big hp will run all over the traction control. I can tell you it scared the **** out of me and the the guys I was passing. It was my lucky day. Even after all the Autocross I've done and 53 years of drag racing you can still screw up. Just glad I didn't have to test out the RPM roll cage that day.

JonMN

I have never been in that situation with a Vette, but driving for 40 years in MN has given me a lot of practice driving out of skids on ice. Kind of an instinct by now.

99vetteran

Same with me growing up in Missouri, our weather is not as bad as yours but we get a full season of ice, snow and rain. I learned back in the 60s when there was no traction control, abs and all these driving modes on the new cars. It does help car control for sure.