What was your first memory of oversteer?

[Jake]

My parents never drove like Speed Racer - and even if they did, a tank slapper in a '94 Taurus or '88 Sentra would be pretty difficult to achieve - but I learned a lot about driving in my Ford Escape.

It was the V6 4x4 model, so it had some grunt and could spin all four wheels if you tried hard enough. We had a snow day in high school so I did what every other Ashburn teenager did. I called my friends (texting wasn't really a thing yet) and made plans to meet at Starbucks and drink lattes until we got bored of that.

Leaving the neighborhood I made a right turn from our street onto the street that would take me to the 'Bucks. It was a 90° turn, like this |-----. I had previously slid the Escape around in the snow a little bit and decided to gas it through the turn, because "that seems fun!"

Yeah, well, I fucked up. I gassed it mid-turn so the ass kicked out. Then it kicked out too much and I panicked, as I was going mostly sideways in a big beige SUV with cars in driveways next to me. I lifted off the throttle, stomped the brakes, ripped the e-brake, and *snap* oversteer. I oversteered off to the right and up a driveway, going between the neighbor's mailbox and a Ford E-150 van, stopping in their expansive front yard.

I assessed the situation, gingerly reapplied throttle to get out of the yard, and drove very slowly to the Starbucks.