Oversteer at 65: a Cautionary Tale

I had occasion recently to ride as a passenger in a '59 Coupe' driven by a close friend of mine. We had driven quite a distance on relatively open roads, but soon entered a congested area. We were motoring along with other traffic at about 65 mph in lane number two--numbered from the left--when the left lane (lane 1) started to slow. A driver in that lane decided to change to lane number two, without looking, of course, and that's when things started to go wrong.

Our driver at first didn't see the other car until it was already in our lane since the two cars were nearly side by side, with us gently passing on the right. I pointed out to her the other car, and she moved over abruptly to the right to make way, and then she continued on in dialogue--a little too quickly--as if nothing had happened. She was relatively new to these tail-engined cars, and was a reasonably good pilot, but she failed to appreciate that she wasn't yet done with the recovery from her manouver.

She had over-steered a little. My attention was still on the road and she for a brief moment seemed curious or annoyed that I was looking intently forward and not listening to her conversation. She then realized that we were not going straight forward in our new lane and, without thinking, I'm sure, she lifted off the throttle. ...As many of you may know, this increased the rate of turn! Now she was startled and swerved the car left to correct it, and again over-steered. She fought to correct this over-steer and got it to go right again but this time it swung around even more and now she had a lot more of a curve going on!

I was flatly astonished when she then looked up at me, all doe-eyed, as if to say she had no idea what was going on or what to do about it... And realizing that we had to steer left really badly, but that she wasn't turning the wheel, I reached over and began to turn the wheel left as fast as I could.

For a brief moment I felt that I had caught the spin--though the tail was hanging out the left side, the front was going forward again. A few more moments of this and we'd have scrubbed off enough speed with those rear tires going sideways, and we'd recover from the slide, going the right direction. Just then, for no explicable reason I could fathem at the time, the car spun right and we hit the right-side guard rail, nose first, with the first impact on the left side of the nose!

With my body contorted to reach the wheel and steer, I wasn't in a favorable position for the impact and I got such a close up view of the dash that I now wear a reminder, racoon style... The car continued to spin and when the car began to face forward again, after doing a 360, the wheels locked on track and we came to rest, facing forward in the right hand lane. From behind it looked as though we had just stalled in the right lane and didn't have the courtesy to pull off the road.

We got out. We were both OK. She got some bruises, and I had a few more I wouldn't know about for a few days. But we were alive and well, albeit a bit shaken up. As we discussed the event by the side of the road she made a comment that put the last piece of the puzzle together for me: Just at the moment when I thought I had arrested the skid, she hit the brakes! Aaaagh! Sure enough, you could see the spot on the pavement where she had locked them up and all four wheels began to skid and the spin really began.

But the poor car.... This car is one of those particularly rare ones that didn't have any rust to speak of and had never had any body damage before other than minor door dings, perhaps. It was a very sweet automobile, and will be again, I hope. The key question now is whether or not it can be saved - it should be as it's got some of the best insurance you can get, including an appraised, agreed valuation of $35,000. But that's not the point of this story...

Please let this serve as a "cautionary tale" to others:

• NEVER let conversation, or anything else, get in the way of paying attention to your driving - it must have top priority for your attention!
• NEVER lift the throttle in any turning situation if you can easily avoid it or at the very least, be ready for the rate of turn to increase, possibly dramatically.
• NEVER give up fighting! You can recover from a severe situation if you stay calm and confident and just do the best you can - KEEP DRIVING!
• NEVER hit the brakes when you're trying to correct an over-steer situation or to avoid a spin.

Some of the newer drivers among us may not yet have become aware of how our rear-engined machines are different from what they may be used to driving and may fail to appreciate just how critical it is to learn about these facts BEFORE they need to know! ...Keep your tail from telling this tale!

[ Editors postscript: See your local 356 club, PCA chapter or Automobile Insurance company about where you can take a "defensive driving" or "performance driving" course in your area. Many will put you through spins in a controlled situation. A car club autocross is another place to get experience "at the edge" of your car's handling. You can ride with experienced drivers at almost any event. There's nothing like experience as a teacher.]