5 Responses to What does “turning into a skid” mean?

1. Rodzor says:

   September 26, 2011 at 6:03 am

   turn into it and release brake, gently accelerate to control car; it will transfer weight from front to back so you can control the car and steer “into the skid” so you can safely maneuver out of it.

   in your example you’d have severe under steer so you do not want to turn more as you would be looking for grip that you don’t have. so you would adjust your steering wheel until you regain some grip (turn with skid) at the front wheels… Once grip is restored by turning with it, gently and precisely add steering (out of it).
2. Elmer says:

   September 26, 2011 at 6:18 am

   You would have to counter steer your car to avoid hitting something. It’s pretty much like “drifting” search up drifting on youtube so you know how it looks like in 3rd person.
3. ugiidriver says:

   September 26, 2011 at 6:54 am

   Turning to the right would be the answer in your example.
4. StephenWeinstein says:

   September 26, 2011 at 7:11 am

   Steer right.
5. Chen says:

   September 26, 2011 at 8:07 am

   Basically, you turn the wheel towards the right and towards the direction in which you want to be travelling. But let’s make more sense of you question, if you may:

   There are several types of skids, depending on which wheels are sliding. The first and most common type is when the front wheels are skidding. The front wheels turn you into a corner when you turn the wheel. Therefore, if the front wheels are sliding, they would not turn very well and send the car straight ahead and in a wider turn. This skid is known, for obvious reasons, as “UNDERSTEER”.

   The solution is to slow down gently by easing off of the gas and/or braking with feel. Simultanously, it’s best to take off some of the steering input and turn the wheel LESS. This helps making the car tighten up the line faster and more smoothly. This can be seen as “steering into the skid” since the car is sliding out of the corner and you straighten the wheel slightly towards that direction.

   But it seems that you are talking about when the rear wheels are sliding — the situation of oversteer. You see, the front wheels turn you into corners, but the rear wheels also have a job — they need to keep the car in line with the front wheels. If they slide, they would be thrown aside, which would rotate the car too much around it’s front, turning it “too much” into the corner and spinning it — hence called “oversteer”.

   During oversteer, you need to get the car balanced. This is more complex than correcting understeer because it usually involved giving the car some gas, which is very counterituitive. Other than that, there is also a steering correction. Sometimes you just have to straighten the steering, but the rule of thumb is that you need to turn the wheel towards the direction in which you want to go — towards the road. This is also known as “steering into the skid” because you steer (=turn the front wheels) into the direction where the REAR is sliding. It’s also known as “countersteering”.

   Both rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive can exhibit either oversteer or understeer, depending on what the driver is doing behind the wheel, but the drivetrain can carry a hugh difference as to how exactly the skid occurs and how it’s corrected. Most cars are front-wheel driven.

   Disclaimer: Oversteer correction is highly complex, don’t attempt it unless you have been trained intensivelly in doing so (one skidpad tuition does not count as intensive training). If you do get oversteer, just brake really really hard and quickely — this will be most effective.