To: ogi who wrote (51873 ) 11/1/2007 10:31:37 AM From: E. Charters Read Replies (2) | Respond to Decidedly Off Topic, but here goes: What Nader complained about and what inspired his famous book, Unsafe at Any Speed, was driven (literally) by a trick driver employed by Ford who drove the car in a special way, (yanking the wheel to the left hard after hitting the brake hard to lose adhesion) so that the Corvair went into a 'four-wheel drift' on video. A classic spin-out, aided by the Corvair's tail-heavy, rear engine placement and stiffer roll resistant rear suspension. If you can do it right, and the car has a sufficiently low C of G, you can use such a manoeuver to stop the car fast. I used to do it all the time in a Mercedes Benz, and once to stop a Dodge from 100 mph in perhaps 150 feet. Some cars will roll if adhesion does not break in both wheels evenly. Rolling in a small car could be dangerous as your head hits the side window easily with violent rocking motion. The Corvair had a roll axis that descended rear to front, with more roll on the front than the back. This leads to oversteer and spin-out from the extra side pressure on the rear load tire.
