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Porsche Club of America
Out For A Spin

Oversteer, as you probably already know, is that thrilling situation when the back end of your car breaks loose and your car slides sideways. No movie car chase would be complete without both cops and robbers fishtailing madly around every corner. In reality, its not the fastest way through most corners, but it sure makes you look like you’re going fast!

There are a few different ways to induce oversteer. The macho way is to stomp on the gas and smoke up the rear tires while turning and fishtailing all over the place. Of course if you have front wheel drive, this won’t work. My old Nissan Sentra had front wheel drive, and only had about 50 horsepower anyway. So the only way to oversteer in that car was to pull the hand brake when going around a corner, usually in the snow, making me feel like a real “rally guy.”

Porsches don’t have front wheel drive though (thank God) and Porsche drivers usually prefer a more sophisticated oversteer experience. This would generally take place on a race track or autocross course where the car is travelling through a turn and the driver lifts off the throttle. This deceleration transfers weight onto the front wheels, making the back end light and causing the rear of the car to begin to slide. A mild amount of oversteer induced this way helps to rotate the car in certain corners. A further evolution of this is effect is “four wheel drift” where all four wheels are sliding gently.

Although oversteer is not fastest way around a track, there are times when a little oversteer is helpful. For example at New Hampshire International Speedway, turn 6 (the bowl) is a hairpin that requires your car to rotate 180 degrees. When I enter that corner I toss the car into the corner with my hands which gets the oversteer started, then apply throttle and drift all the way through.

Once a car is in four-wheel drift, you can apply the technique known as “throttle steering”. By lifting gently off the throttle, the car turns in more. Get back on the throttle and the car begins to straighten. By using throttle steering, it is actually possible to drive through a slalom course by turning the steering wheel to enter the first gate, then straighten out the wheel and drive through the rest of the course with throttle steering only. Of course this would take a huge amount of practice.

These are very advanced techniques and are best left to an autocross course or other safe, controlled environment to experiment with. Remember that we’re taking about tires sliding, meaning that you are at, or beyond the gripping ability of your tires. Any unexpected situation or change in the road surface could cause you to spin out of control, so don’t try this on the street!

As the guru will tell you, “In order to reach Nirvana, you must first master oversteer.”