[Land-speed] Car Spins

[Tom Bryant]

Mayf,

Over the years, I have spun four times at Bonneville (two in a roadster and
twice in the Pierson Coupe). Three times was executed by trying to drive out
of a problem when I should have lifted.  The fourth time was by pulling it
into reverse at 190 mph, however so briefly, did cause a couple of rotations
 So far, I have not spun at the lakes, however, three other drivers have
spun my roadsters there. At Bonneville, one driver has multiple spins
(three) in the present coupe with a crash on the last spin.

It seems to me that, as Dan has suggested, spins are the result, in most
cases, of too much input from the driver. Short cars are going to react to
steering input more quickly and radically than longer cars. Longer cars have
more stability because of the air flow, I suspect. Think of a dart and an
arrow. Darts require more tail feather than an arrow to be stable.

There were multiple reasons for our crash. First we had an unbalanced car
which was corrected by adding 500 lbs behind the front wheels that corrected
the rear coming around when the drive wheels broke loose. Big mistake, when
we broke a front suspension arm, because of coil binding, when the car hit a
hole on turning out. We repaired the suspension arm and I removed about half
of the weight we had used to balance the car. This time when it got loose,
it did a couple of slow rotations, instead of the snap spins previously,
resulting in two times. This was also very soft salt!

I think that the most knowledgeable person on short cars handling is Bill
Ward. His Opel ran in excess of 250 mph with a blown Chev, but with much
massaging of the aerodynamics. Always think ICE when driving at high speed.
Another note...I have learned while driving on slick roads that when you
lift abruptly you will end up in a slide, the back end wants to come around.
By applying a bit of throttle you can regain control. Again, at Bonneville,
if in trouble, lifting a bit has shown me that the car will right itself,
abrupt lifting can become a bigger problem.

Tom, Redding CA = #216 D/FCC

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of faint_grain.jpg]

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of imstp_animation_panda_en_020908.gif]