I am living in a place with snow. People who has experienced with a snowing winter would know that the car would slide outward in a turn if you drive too fast. Of course the best way to gain control is to drive slowly. However, if you were accidentally turning too fast, what would be the fastest way to get back the control?

In my case, I was making a left turn. I was just turning too fast that the tail of the car slide to the right a bit. Then I turn my steering wheel right, but then the tail slide to the left. Repeating the step, the car's tail keep sliding to both side like 4 time before I can get back the control. Well, I don't think this is the correct way to drive the car as I have seen a lot of video that people can do it so smoothly especially in a Rally competition.

Can someone just give me suggestion to avoid an accident?

 

1. Look where you want to go. It sounds dumb to say it, but often people will look at the obstacle they're about to hit rather than where they want to go.

2. Don't overcompensate with your steering inputs. The best way to avoid this is to find an empty parking lot and PRACTICE. They say practice makes perfect; driving in low-grip situations is no exception. So find a safe place to practice initiating, controlling, and recovering from a slide.

 

Good advice from Raptord for starters, look where you want to go, NOT at what you are concerned about hitting. If the rear of the car starts to kick out, use quick but minimal steering inputs. Your arms should never cross... if you can't recover the car in a twist of your arms (without repositioning your hands) its not going to recover from steering input. In slippery conditions you can control the motion of the car far better with brake/throttle input than with steering. If you watch rally drivers for example, they are using clutch/brake/gas to control the rotation of the car with extremely minimal steering changes.

Now, I don't know the specific situation you are worried about encountering... but a common one I've had several times is going into a turn faster than I should have, there is ice/snow/debris on the turn and the car continues to slide towards the far curb. First off, hitting the brakes in this case is a bad idea. If the car is already slipping, locking the wheels (even with ABS) will just lose what control of the car you have, while not really slowing the car. If you are throttle neutral in the turn, you can point the wheels where you want to go and give modulated throttle pressure. Don't go WOT and just lay into the gas, but gently pulse the gas as you steer towards the clear road. This will try to scrabble through to get grip and control the car safely. Note, in a RWD car this is NOT a good idea, but it works more often than not for the Evo.

 

Exactly. Dont stomp the brakes or gas, that will make it worse. In the snow you should only gradually do one or the other. If your tail end goes right, turn the wheel where you want to go and when you catch you will be fine. Steer too far and you will fishtail the other way

 

thx, I will practice more with your advice.

 

Blizzaks! Best advice I can give being I drive in snow all the time is find an open parking lot that does not have anything to hit, and just practice driving on a snowey day. Get use to what the car does and how it responds and how you can correct it. Also get yourself a extra set of rims and get a good set of blizzaks it will make a world of difference when tring to do anything in snow.

 

This...

however... playing baseball most of my life with many coaches, the best coach always said.. practice doesn't make perfect, if you practice wrong you will never get it perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect...

But you will certainly get a feel for how the car handles in the snow in a empty lot, it is a must. And well... its also wicked fun!!

 

+1 I'm going to go with this. With these tires, or a pair of x-ices you are going to have a hard time making your car slide unless you do it intentionally. Also I will say if your car is way to sideways sometimes your best option really is to lay on the throttle, never really the brakes, but also sometimes/most of the time just a little flick of the wheel gets everything right. As said before practice. Understeer and oversteer in the snow need to be handled differently, in fact every situation requires something a little different.

My rules for snow are
1. STAY CALM!!!!
2. GOOD TIRES
3. Only one thing at once, if your turning don't be on the gas or brakes
4. Throttle after turns Brake before
5. This kind of just basic stuff that hopefully you already know

 

Don't over compensate any easy on the gas pedal. I learned this the hard way a couple months ago. Slid a little on some wet leaves making a leftaround a corner then eased the steering wheel around but punched the gas pedal and ended up sideways facing the right side of the road, then panicked and rotated the wheel as far as I could and ended up sideways facing the left side of the road then got traction suddenly Curb, tree, sudden stop. Felt like getting body slammed flat on your back then I got out to see my now C shaped Evo. I'd say stupid tree but really it was stupid driver. Drive cautiously in slippery conditions and avoid the scenario all together.

 

That sucks a lot dude sorry. but its true trees are batting 1000 vs cars.

 

Actually I got more from the insurance company than I paid for the car +$1800 then I bought the car back for $3000 and sold it immediately for $4000.

So up $2800 other than the pain in the neck.

 

Damn thats crazy well im surprised you would lose control in an evo. Im not sure its easy or hard but if your sliding around for no reason it makes me wonder about certain people driving habits. Maybe you should drive a little.... slower????

 

Problem is I hammered the gas to correct and got all 4 wheels spinning. Oops.

 

You were fishtailing, problem is people's sudden instinct is to opposite lock hard but that not the case. Especially in snow like others have said you steering input should be precise yet minimal. I'd say find a place to practice and get some good snow tires. Luckily you have the right car, this is pretty much the evo's playing ground but the driver still needs to know what he's doing to make the car behave. What mode is it in by the way? As for rally drivers driving so well it's all about smoothness, it's like a dance, every move is done to lead up to the next move.

 

trust me its easier than you think. first year of owning my evo we got 4 inches of snow and i was driving pretty slowly coming home from a friends. i got in behind a salt truck and he stopped on a bridge to really spray it down and i decided to go around him and kick it to have a little "fun" ran up the road to about 40mph fishtailing it back and forth having some fun. got it back straight and went to start slowing down to turn on my road and then it started to slide straight instead of turning. and i was headed straight for a 15ft drop off into a creek. i had to force myself to let off the brake, turn the wheel full lock and ease into the gas. these cars are very predictable and have very good control and traction with granted you have good tires. the front wheels pulled the car in the direction i wanted to go and the car slid sideways for a second and then pulled itself into the road i was trying to turn on kinda like an awd drift on snow. i bet if you had a hammer you couldnt drive a nail in my ******* it was that tight. i thought i was about to total my car lol.

this video shows just how good our cars handle. it could have been alot worse and the driver was going way too fast but it shows that our cars were made for ****ty conditions and handling.

http://youtu.be/FhVGeIgLdlI