Get your braking done before your corner. If you do get in trouble, 1st freeze for a moment, this will prevent any reactionary actions which will typically be the opposite of what you want to do (i.e. lifting). If things still are not going your way take it off striaght with the brakes mashed.

As far as autox, it is a great environment to learn your car beyond the limit. One word of caution though, once you get into autox you end up doing a good bit more mid corner "work" than you would want to do on the track. (i.e. braking or throttle).

 

Thanks everyone.

Its a relief to know that this only applies to high speed / on the limit situations.

One quick question... would having VSA or racelogic help?

 

help? yes. make it no longer and issue? no

 

it can happen a lower speeds too, you can probably induce oversteer going 15-25 mph in first gear by lifting off the throttle.

I spun out once going 30-35 in 2nd gear and doing a FULL(completely lifting) lift on the throttle. Coming out of a curve. I don't think i was even in v-tec(h), i really doubt you can call that the limit. I've never lifted since, hasn't happen since, lession learned.

my suggestion, test the limits on a track.

 

never had the tail come put unless pushing it or giving too much gas. and 30-35 could very well be the limit if the turn is pretty tight. but if you were accelerating and then suddenly completely lifted thats a very quick unloading of the rear tires and very quick loading of the front. so I can see it happening if going pretty quick and doiung so very suddenly

 

it was a very noobish thing to do, what i did. It was an S curve and I had cleared the two apexes and was coming out of the curve when i decided to do a little engine braking. I thought the car was riding straight, i may have caught some dirt or gravel, but i'm convinced it was the lifting of the throttle that induced my spin.

 

1) This applies to all cars, not just S2000's and not just Ap1's. It's just less forgiving on s2000's, especially early Ap1's.
2) I'm not sure if VSA will help. Probably will. Still not a great idea to lift.
3) Very smoothly. Do not just lift off the throttle. Take it nice and easy, and if possible, slowly (it's easier to be smooth when you're doing it slowly). But the best way is not to enter a corner to quickly. Take it easy on the street and use run off area on the track (in case of an emergency).
4) If you do loose the back end, don't fight it too much. Point the car where you want to go and try to get on the throttle. Again, the key here is to be smooth. I'd be surprised if anyone who really lost control of the car was able to regain control their first time. It takes several times going past the limit to really understand where the limit is and how to regain control. That's why I recommend autox and/or driving with caution on the street.

 

The most likely place to get into an unknown emergency situation mid corner will be the street. Auto-X lots are wide the freak open for view. Tracks have corner workers with flags.

So just take it easy on the street. The car will snap out if you're driving close to it's limit and then decide to lift. The car probably won't snap out if you're cruising sorta fast around a turn and decide to lift or brake.

You shouldn't be F1'ing it on the street. Give yourself room for error. There are a million things that could go wrong on the street. Nobody expects you to be going fast like on the track.

Oversteer from lifting really applies to all cars. FWD, AWD, RWD. RWD cars just exhibit the worst form of it because solely the rear wheels are acting as brakes on decel (similar to pulling the E-brake in a FWD car). The weight shifts to the front, the rear gets light, the rears are acting as brakes and BAM you have rotation.

S2000s exhibit this more than even other RWD cars. Especially early AP1s.

I don't really think VSA would help here. As far as I know, VSA is just a traction device that's active mostly on acceleration. I don't think it's like the corvette system which applies braking to specific points to reduce oversteer or understeer...and I don't think it's like an active yaw control. I think it's just to prevent wheel spin and on throttle oversteer.

I wouldn't worry too much. Just take it easy on the street. Learn the car at a track. I've never had the car act a fool on the street because if I do take a turn "fast" on the street, it's still only at about 5-6/10ths of the car's limit.

The track is where I do all my oversteering. Into tire walls

 

I don't see how VSA can help you with lift-off oversteer. It can only cut power to one or both rear wheels, right? How could it help in a situation like this?

 

having driven both an 01 and an 06... vsa does catch the tail when it comes out, it can apply brakes to individual wheels as well as cut power... things that got me all kinds of sideways with my 01 or with vsa off on corner entry or lifting, were caught by vsa to a point. where a good driver would get sideways and catch it but a novice would spin, the vsa helps a lot. where even an experienced driver would spin, it aint gonna save you