what should you do if you spin your car?

[Davezj]

i was having a think after watching and old Topgear and wondered what you would do in this situation.

you are in a vr4 and it's an Auto.
you go round a corner and loose the back end and end up trying to go backwards.

in an manual gear box car, once you have lost the back end and the car wants to start going backward you will have the clutch pushed in and foot on the brake.

in an auto the car is always in gear until you push it into neutral.

are you supposed to leave it in drive and wack your foot on the brake pedal and hope it doesn't try and go backwards, or do you flick it into neutral.

i have often seen it on topgear when they loose the back end you hear clarkson talking his way through the slide which includes fick it in to neutral.

what do you think you should do.

[SGHOM]

power .............. :)

[Nick Mann]

In a VR4 with AYC, theoretically you could keep your foot on the throttle and let the car sort it for you? Personally I steer hard in to the slide with a slight lift of throttle if I need to and it has always worked. In a VR4 I have not often found myself in a slide without having seriously provoked it though!

Are you talking about sliding for fun or recovering in an unplanned dangerous situation?

[foxdie]

I think what he means is, if you make a total balls-up and spin the car 180' so you're facing the wrong way and rolling backwards, if the cars in drive and rolling backwards it could stall the engine or potentially damage the gearbox.

[aboo]

I went off the track backwards at Japfest 2009. It doesn't hurt the gearbox but it did stall & then it took a few turns of the key to get the car started again. There must be a fail safe of sum sorts built in for when happens.

[Nick Mann]

I think what he means is, if you make a total balls-up and spin the car 180' so you're facing the wrong way and rolling backwards, if the cars in drive and rolling backwards it could stall the engine or potentially damage the gearbox.

In that situation I would be using the pedals and steering wheel to get the car pointing the right way asap, I wouldn't be carrying on rolling backwards and playing with the gear lever.

AKA J-turn!

[foxdie]

Always wanted to practice a J-Turn and (unrelated) a bootleg turn / scandinavian flick /Devil5

[Nick Mann]

I used to J-turn an old montego estate when I was younger! Lots of fun, but you do think you are going to flip it over when you get up to speed and then throw the steering wheel round!! Not good for tyre life or passengers underwear in my experience.

[miller]

Scandinavian flick works okay in a Legnum!!!

[Davezj]

I think what he means is, if you make a total balls-up and spin the car 180' so you're facing the wrong way and rolling backwards, if the cars in drive and rolling backwards it could stall the engine or potentially damage the gearbox.

yeh jason, that is what i meant. but i didn't describe it very well.

i suppose the torque converter only works correctly in one direction, eg forward, if you suddenly start turning the gearbox backwards when you are in drive then it would stall the engine and the pressure built up in the torque converter would be releaced and hopefully no harm done.

i like this, ask the question and someone would have done it before.
i was just curious what would happen.