Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Bootlegger turn

From: I. Van Laningham ( ivanlan@pauahtun.org)
Date: 09 Jan 2006


Hi All--

Racerick75@aol.com wrote:
>
> Let's say you want to do a bootlegger turn to the left, and you're driving a straight drive car (it's EXTREMELY hard to do this with an automatic). You're traveling in the right hand lane. You pull the car to the extreme edge of the asphalt, and then crank the wheel to the left. At about the point that you're straddling the middle line of the road, you put negative steering input into the wheel - turn it back to the right. At the same time, you double clutch with your left foot, keep your right foot on the gas, and pull the emergency brake with your right hand. DON'T LET GO OF THE EMERGENCY BRAKE BUTTON or the handle will stick in place due to the ratchet. You pull the brake lever, which locks the rear wheels, which are already unloaded because of your second turn to the right. The rear end of the car should snap around. When you've completed the 180 degree turn, you release the brake lever, rev the engine to match the revolutions for first or second gear, double clutch ag
ai!
> n to put the car into gear, and give it gas to light up the rear tires and stop the spin. If you've done it right, you've drawn an 'S' in the middle of the road, and you're facing in the opposite direction from the way you came.
>
> Haven't done one (at least on purpose) in about thirty years. Knowing how to do it saved my bacon in a couple of racing 'incidents' over the years, though.
>
> Kids, don't try this at home. You can seriously tear up a car in the learning curve.
>

The place where you learn how to do this is where I learned. A large, empty parking lot after a light snowfall. My friend Tom and I used the parking lot for the largest high school in the city. You can learn all kinds of useful skills this way, all the while screaming at the top of your lungs, a favorite sport of teenage boys. Start at the entrance to the lot, accelerate to about 30 or 35 mph, and tap the brakes. Spin city. Do it enough to make your reactions completely automatic.

Once you learn precision control over your spins and skids, you can go on to more challenging tricks. Maybe you won't qualify to be a stunt driver, but the skid control alone may very well save your butt, unless you live where there is no snow, you lucky puppy you. Wait till you're running at 60mph and hit a patch of black ice on a tight curve. ...

Metta, Ivan
---------------------------------------------- Ivan Van Laningham God N Locomotive Works http://www.andi-holmes.com/ http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html Army Signal Corps: Cu Chi, Class of '70 Author: Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours

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