Just came back from the track last weekend.

On one 3rd gear turn, I setup the car to exit on full throttle and the car held up fine all morning. As the track heated up, I did the same corner the same way and the car got sideways as I got close to the rumble strips on track-out.

What do you do to recover?

Do I keep the throttle planted and try to correct using my steering or do I lift/counter steer ?

John

 

It depends. ™

 

Depends. As a general rule, stay neutral on the throttle and countersteer (steer gingerly into the spin). The sliding will scrub speed and you should only have to countersteer for a second to get the car back. If the car fishtails and swings back the opposite way, you know you countersteered too much.

The back end could come out for five reasons I can think of:
1) You lifted off the throttle and/or hit the brakes, which weighted the front tires (giving them more grip) and unweighted the rear tires (which gave them less). This is how a snowboarder steers btw. In this situation, getting back on the throttle and a little shot of countersteer should set you straight.
2) You were accelerating too hard and the rear tires couldn't give both the lateral grip AND the acceleration grip you needed. So the tires slid. Getting on the gas is only gonna make this worse. Lifting will also be bad, as it exascorbates the situation (see #1). Lifting a tiny bit and holding the throttle neutral, along with countersteering, should straighten things out a bit.
3) You hit a section of pavement with bumps, gravel, fluids, etc. that caused the rear to break traction. Neutral on the gas, countersteer, ride it out.
4) The car is set up improperly and the rear gives out before the front.
5) Steering input. You THINK you took the turn identically, but maybe you asked the car to turn a bit more than you did in the previous laps or you were sketchy on the steering and did something with the wheel to cause a loss in the rear.

Whatever the case, get used to the backend coming out. And when I say get used to it--I mean go out and PREPARE for it....get yourself to a big parking lot and try to be Drift Racer X. In almost every turn of every lap I do on the track the front or the back is sliding....sometimes simultaneously, sometimes one just before or after the other in the same turn. But RARELY does my car understeer or oversteer without me anticipating and/or intentionally causing it. And only ONCE have I ever lost it and gone off track in the S because of oversteer. (Hey, I had just passed my first GT3, was offline and not concentrating.)

 

Blahaha, that's a good one Mike.

 

Never ™

 

if fishtails the other way, u were too slow in the recovery phase back to center, when u say countersteered too much...it means too long in duration. theres no such thing as overcorrecting

 

I'm with you..

 

Why did you lose grip as the track heated up? What am I missing here?

 

I feel like I may have cooked the tires driving the same way I did in the morning.

The car didnt' fishtail...but I always see those drifters keeping on the throttle to ride out the car and I felt like if I had stayed on the throttle with no life....the rear would've come around on me..

but i try not to lift with little sides..Having the rear end slightly sliding on corner exit is my thing>=)

 

Then it may be possible that you were loosing grip as your tires deterioted. The fix there would just be a change in your line (just slightly of course). Turn in later to get straighter sooner.

It will be slower, but that's what happens when you lose grip!