I currently own a 1995 Ford Ranger, with a 4.0 litre V6 and a 5spd manual transmission. Bad combo for rear wheel traction. Anyway, I knew that my rear tires were getting a little low on tread, and I was procrastinating on purschasing some new sneakers for it. Knowing that it would bite me sooner or later, I wasn't surprised at what happened recently when driving in the rain.

We haven't had rain in a while, so Tuesday morning (9 Aug 05) caught me off guard. When coming around a downhill corner, albeit slower because of the rain, the rear end of my truck started coming around. My instincts took over and I gently rolled out of the throttle and countersteered a little, which brought the rear end back in place. After arriving at my desitnation, I thought about that little episode in detail.

I normally do not drive in a spirited manner, so real life practice with slides comes few and far between. I know in the past I would have immediately let off the throttle and countersteered a lot to get the auto under control, with the risk of a slide in the opposite direction a real possibility. Maybe as I age and my maturity level as a driver increases, I have learned to deal with these situations better. I do think that learning to reduce the effects of a slide while focusing on going forward, as I have learned to do in LFS, perhaps helped me to avoid crashing that morning.

I'm not saying that LFS is the only reason why I didn't crash, but I do realize that the skills I learned in LFS certainly have made me a better driver.

Thanks to the Scawen, Eric, and Victor for putting out a sim that I have enjoyed so much over the last 2 years, and for me, has helped in real life driving!

By the way, as of Wednesday afternoon ( 10 Aug 05), I am sporting new Firestone tires with PLENTY of grip!!!

I've had similar experiences

Quote from tpa :

I've had similar experiences

Same here
Recovery manuvers like you can learn in LFS are just not something you want to be practicing in real life. Beyond the simple fun factor of LFS, being a better skilled driver is a huge plus.

i race bikes, so it dont have quite the same effect on real life....although i can still get me back out going into corners

A 4lt V6 powered rear wheel drive pick-up, in the rain, with poor rear tyres, man your american cars are crazy.........

Dan.

Quote from danowat :

man your american cars are crazy.........

Dan.

Ohhhh, you'll never know
First bannana smiley on new forums?

Proof that the pudding tastes good.

yes similar experiences here, though more often feeling helped by managing understeer by reducing the throttle.

had a few oversteer moments that for sure LFS helped - adjusting for your real car will no doubt be different to the sim, but it does help you by teaching you the basics and of course removing all the fear when understeer or oversteer takes place for real

my town has 58 roundabouts - mainly since they are so opposed to traffic lights - so you can imagine how fun that is in the rain with a 4.1L i6 in a 1650kg RWD car.

Good that u made it banshee now back to the racetrack. haven't seen u online for a while

Thanks Avih! That sure was a hair raising moment. My new Firestone's are so good, now I can feel that I need new shocks. I guess I just got used to the amount of sliding the old tires were doing.

Hey man, I'm on most evenings. I know that our time difference may be a problem, but you can usually find me on the www.coreracing.net server, and recently I have been on the UKLFS server and sometimes on the Bager Racing server. Hope to see you online buddy!

Hmm, I seem to be the exact opposite. I'm in the mountains of Pennsylvania and we get plenty of snow. I've been driving nearly 20 years now and the snow is where I learned to drive FWD/RWD/4WD. I can remember in high school in the 83 automatic Ford Escort, skipping school with the buddies and heading out on the back roads and driving for hours sideways using the E-brake. My first car I purchased (Escort was parent's) was a piece of crap Geo Storm. Brand spankin new, weighed next to nothing, decent power for what it was, 100 hp. The thing I liked was I always spent the money for tires. $200 dollars a piece (back in early 90's) and I could top out max speed on any bend in the road you wanted me too. The down side of this was, if it even hinted of snowing, the car was all over the place. I HAD to use the e-brake to turn. You want to talk about understeer, you want to turn into the road on the left and there's snow on the road? Slow down, turn the wheel, car continues straight, and I mean straight. Didn't turn one bit. Then I found my Toyota Pickup. I've had one ever since. 2 wheel drive, 4 wheel drive, didn't matter, I had a blast with it. My favorite pasttime was sitting first at a traffic light with snow on the ground in 4 wheel drive and punching it when the light turned green. Truck kicks sideways, I'm at opposite lock and I go through the intersection with all 4 wheels slinging snow around. Completely in control. You really want to learn how to control a vehicle, take it out on the mountain roads in the snow. You'll learn all about countersteering and throttle control then.

And Banshee, glad to here you pulled out of it Ok. I see elsewhere in the forum here that someone else wasnt' so lucky.