Seen many videos of fast cars (mustangs especially lol) accelerating in a straight line and then losing control and going into the curb/crowd. What would cause it to do that when the wheels are just pointed straight ahead?
How does one prevent or control this?
In: Engineering
These cars are powered by the back wheels. When you punch the gas, two things happen.
1. The back end of the car will kick to the side a little bit before traction is gained which is completely normal.
2. The sudden burst of speed causes the car body and frame to tip back a little bit which puts more down force on the back tires and gives more traction. This lets the tires bite into the ground and stop kicking out to the side.
An experienced driver will maintain acceleration along with continuing to look and steer in the direction they want to go. The back end will quickly get back in line and off they go.
An inexperienced driver will feel the back end kick to the side and panic. They will over steer and let off the gas. This allows three bad things to happen.
1. The car is now decelerating which makes the frame and body tip towards the front. This removes the down force from the back tires and applies it all to the front tires.
2. The back tires don’t have traction and are now unable to do anything. Even if the driver hits the gas again, they will just spin and kick the back end out more.
3. All of the down force and traction are running through the front tires which have been over steered. We now have very grippy tires steering the car too far to the side.
The car is now in an uncontrollable fish tail that will result in a crash in anything other than an empty parking lot.
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