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AWD Powerslide

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Old 12-06-2004, 03:28 AM
David_K's Avatar
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 3,295
Default AWD Powerslide

AWD cars have the incredible ability to come back from angles which you would swear were beyond recovery. IF all the wheels are spinning, they have very little drip. If you keep the power on and have enough grunt to keep all four wheels spinning all you need to do is turn the steering wheel full lock in the direction you want to spin and the car will try to do it.

ALLROAD owners: dont try this. Stock suspensioners: dont take the flick at higher than 15 mph.

Materials:

Airport tarmac. Or a huge parking lot with no obstacles. If your city has an autox event the parking lot used is a good place to start out learning.

Tires. AWD powerslides will eat up tires and devours soft grippy tires. So go out and find a place that sells used tires and buy a set. Or go to pepboys and buy there set of tires for $100.

*****. AWD powerslides take confidence. If you say “this wont work” it wont. You need to visualize your self powersliding. To need to commit and go al the way. The results from an aborted powerslide could be fatal.

The biggest mistake people make when learning to powerslide is releaseing the throttle. You only have total control over AWD cars if you have the power on. They are set up for this and become unstable when you lift off. AWD cars require more forward planning if you want to drive them on the limit.

Procedure:

There are 2 parts to a powerslide, the set up (or destablizer) and the slide.

Destablizer: Scandinavian Flick

1. instead of brakeing in a straight line, flick the car slightly away from the turn.
2. Immediately release the throttle and simultaniously do an emergency brake pump. ( keep the button depressed and pull up and down in one smooth quick motion) and turn the steering wheel 90 degres.
3. downshift and apply full throttle.

This will slingshot you into a 90+ degree slide. (this is not a powerslide)

Powerslide:

More throttle = More sideways motion = Less forwards motion
Less thrttle = Less sideways motion = more forward motion

Ideally the rotation of the car is perfect so it needs no adjustments from the steering wheel. But if attempting at low speeds (30-40mph) turning into the turn will help you slide sideways longer.
To stop sliding counter-steer relative to the turn.


At first this move seems really scary. thats why you have to find a safe place to practice and always remember to always commit.

When in doubt, both feet out; when in spin, both feet in.

Right now im powersliding at around 50-60mph but i started out with the flick from a stop. practice the flick till you can do it at will before attempting to slide.
 




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