Driving question
 

All I've ever driven is a front wheel drive car, so keep that in mind when you read this question. Lifting off the gas (or hitting the brake) in the middle of a curve can be a very bad thing in a RWD car such as the S. So... what do you do when you're in the middle of a curve and need to avoid something in the road, i.e., emergency situation? Or, for instance, you misjudged and took a curve too fast, and now need to slow down?

this is why you don't drive at the limit, unless you're on virtually deserted streets.

If you're not near the limit then you can apply smooth brake, but it must be smooth as hell.

If you drive near speed limit speeds, then you shouldn't have a problem braking normally.

*edit, this holds true for dry situations, and good tires. If you're driving in wet conditions or have bald tires then you can throw what i've said right out the window.

down shifting works for me.......sometimes

Downshifting applies acceleration only to the driven wheels, whereas breaking applies acceleration to all four wheels. Breaking to slow down is much safer than downshifting when you're near the cornering limit. This is most pronounced in rear-engine, rear-wheel drive cars.

I prefer downshifting also.

I also find that if I can accelerate out of the end of the curve, I get better grip, but obviously, you can't be going too fast for this to still be an option.

Whatever you do, the key is to keep it smooth.

Even if the tail of the car starts to come out a little bit, some smooth acceleration will pull it back in. But it's gotta be smooth.

well, not sure if it's exactly same in cars, but on a bike you don't wanna touch the rear brakes (or in this case downshift). If you downshift you are applying friction to the rear wheels which are also your drive wheels, and you are also not loading the front of the car as much as you would be if you just hit the front brakes (brake pedal). The idea as far as I understand is that if you are turning and need to make some sort of emergency maneuver, you would want to load the weight of the car onto the front wheels ( the ones being used to turn the car) in order to give them more traction, however you don't want to get to the point that the tires are skidding because then you have reduced your coefficient of friction in the forward direction and will thus continue going forward. In other words you want to apply just enough brake or enough turn angle in order to be on the brink of skidding. The only other theory I can think of working is if you where to get the car sideways and "drift" out of trouble. In this case you would turn hard and slide the rear out by keeping on the gas, and just hope you get going the direction you are trying to go in time, but I imagine it would take a lot of skill to not spin out while trying this technique.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xpander4
[B]*edit, this holds true for dry situations, and good tires.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wLim
[B]

That's exactly the point of this question -- what to do in those emergency situations where you don't have optimal traction.