What a beautiful day. The sun is shining and a few puffy clouds are floating across the sky. Well, being driven might be more accurate. The wind is blowing 30 knots, drifting snow has allbut closed my driveway and the temperature hasn't been above 20 degrees Fahrenheit all week. Not all of us get to wear shorts to the office in February.
On the other hand, the 200 tree-lined feet of snow and ice that leads to my house can be pretty entertaining. Accelerate past the mailbox, add a little rotation around the pair of maples at the bottom of the rise and use the swing to square up as we slide to a stop in my usual parking space. My wife doesn't approve, and who knows what the neighbors think, but the kids love it and I'm guessing the instructors at the Steamboat Springs Driving Center would just smile. It's winter, and Scott thought I should pass on some tips for driving through the slipperiest of seasons.
I just returned from a winter ride-and-drive of the new 210-hp Saab 9-3 Vector. Not the usual SCC fare but an entertainingly quick car nonetheless. Part of the fun included a stop in Steamboat Springs for a couple of hours on the ice track. Run by the Rally Art Organization, the Steamboat Springs Driving Center hosts corporate events like ours, tire tests and the Bridgestone Winter School sponsored by Toyota.
Like every instructor at every school I have ever attended, Tanner Foust pointed out that our only connection between the vehicle and the outside world is through the tire's contact patch. Instructor and ProRally regular Mark Cox reinforced the thought, pointing out "tires are critical in the winter. If you live in the snowbelt, you need to use purpose-built snow and ice tired for a couple of reason. One, to get maximum performance, two is just the responsibility of not sliding around on public roads and crossing into the other person's lane. Your connection to the ground is all you have. The better the connection, the better your control of the vehicle. "
"When you are driving on something slippery," continues Frost, "smoothness is the key. Whether you like it or not, you are always driving much closer to the grip limit [than you would be on dry pavement] so it is important not to upset the grip with abrupt input to the throttle, steering or the brakes. Separate the controls and use 100 percent of your grip to do one thing at a time." Adds Cox, "Be smooth in ways people usually don't think about. Lots of people are smooth when they turn the wheel or hit the brakes but they don't consider that smoothly releasing the brake or accelerator or turning the wheel back to center is just as important."
OVERSTEER
To illustrate these points we headed for one of the Center's skidpads. This particular ice circle has a high and low side, making the driving even more interesting. To demonstrate the effects of weight transfer, we accelerated down and around the circle and abruptly released the throttle. Weight transferred to the front, the front tires gained grip while the rears lost grip and around we went. A classic case of lift throttle oversteer.
"Luckily, our natural instinct is to steer in the direction we want to go," says Foust. "Hopefully, we're also looking where we want to go. Hands always follow eyes. To catch the car, I looked where I wanted to go, steered into the skid and added a little throttle. That took the weight off the front tires and put it on the back tired that were sliding. Suddenly they got more grip and things straightened right out."
SEPARATE CONTROLS
Our next stop was the accident avoidance exercise. This exercise reinforces the need to separate the brakes and steering. Again, we want to use 100 percent of the available grip to do one thing. "With no ABS," points out Foust, "it is our responsibility to balance the grip between braking and steering. We'll have to release the brakes to steer. Only once the car is back in a straight line can we brake to stop." We accelerated briskly towards a cone obstacle and braked as hard as possible on Tanner's command. With no ABS, quickly pumping the brakes was the most effective way to slow the car and avoid sliding into the obstacle. Releasing the brakes allowed all of the available grip to be used for steering. Waiting too long to release the brakes resulted in the death of a few cones. A few more died as people in our group held some brake and spin as they tried to turn, pointedly showing how little margin of error there is on ice. Realize you may not be able to stop in every situation. Brake in a straight line, release the brake and steer around the obstacle.
If you have an ABS-equipped car, use the stomp-and-steer technique. Take advantage of the technology. Don't pump the brake pedal, plant your foot on the brake pedal and keep it there as you steer around the obstacle. "It can also be very difficult to separate acceleration and steering," says Foust. A treacherous, nasty, icy, uphill slalom course was waiting for us on the way back to the start of the accident avoidance exercise. Trying to accelerate through the cones brought home the point. On ice and snow, ask the tires to do only one thing at a time.
UNDERSTEER THE ENEMY
The treacherous understeer," says Foust, "probably causes 80 percent of the accidents on the road." We all know the feeling go into a corner too hot, turn the wheel and slide straight off the road. We keep turning the wheel until we get to lock but nothing happens.
"We relate steering compliance to the steering wheel," points out Foust. "When you lose grip with the front tires, you lose steering compliance. We react with two bad instincts to understeer, crank the wheel and hit the brakes. The goal is to regain grip in those front tires. You need to stay off the brakes [you're already trying to use more grip than is available] and find some kind of optimum steering angle. That means turning the wheel back towards straight." This is an extremely difficult lesson to learn, and until you feel the grip come back, is totally counter-intuitive. But it is true and with some practice will make sense.
GOING QUICKLY
We eventually graduated to one of the full one-mile, nine-turn track and their covering of 250,000 frozen gallons of water. In slippery conditions, the traditional racing line won't work. Try a late apex line instead. Use the in-slow, out-fast technique. Get your braking done in a straight line, turn in only when you can see and accelerate as you unwind the wheel. On the ice track, the corners quickly become polished and this line also allows you to cross the slickest spots in a relatively straight line.
You can also use weight transfer to your advantage. "Weight transfer is often a more effective way to steer the car than the steering wheel," says Pikes Peak veteran Foust. The steering wheel just initiates the turn. Accelerate into the turn, turn in and lift off. Use the rotation (oversteer) to point the car in the right direction, countersteer and add a little throttle to stop the oversteer. Left-foot braking carries this idea further. "You can also pit oversteer against understeer," says Foust. "The point of the pendulum turn is to induce oversteer, which happens to get the car pointed earlier so you can accelerate earlier and eliminate understeer."
Smoothness and anticipation are key. The fastest cars at the icy Sno* Drift ProRally were the least dramatic. Lurid slides and bouncing off snowbanks were not the fastest way through the frozen woods. Those drivers invariably kept their eyes up and were constantly looking at the road's chape, the terrain and for changing conditions. "Looking ahead allows you to anticipate and not just react to the situation," says Foust.Good advice for road or rally.
Of course, the thing you need most is practice in these situations. Feeling the car slide out from under you is a scary thing. Ages ago, my dad took me to a snowy parking lot late at night. I was getting pretty good at donuts by the time the cops showed up. They suggested a public lot wasn't perhaps the best place for this kind of behavior but experiencing those sensations on a controlled environment will mean you won't panic when it happens on the street. If you can't find a safe place to practice, call 1-800-WHY-SKID or log onto www.winterdrive.com for more info on the Winter Driving School.