Car approaches corner, car turns around corner, car continues on. It sounds so simple, if it wasn’t for all that silly physics stuff. As Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame explains, going around a corner involves more than just turning the steering wheel in the direction you want to go, especially if you’re going fast.
In a short episode for National Geographic’s Science of Stupid series, Hammond explains the concepts of under and over-steering and how they affect a car’s ability to navigate around corners. As you might have guessed, neither one is a good thing to experience — though drifting is an example of it being utilised well.
While the clip mostly consists of snippets of cars doing it all wrong, Hammond does provide advice on how to get out of both situations, with the general guide being to slow down as you approach a corner, and accelerate as you go in and come out.
Of course, it also helps if you don’t lose a wheel or attempt high-speed manoeuvres on icy terrain, but those go without saying.