What was your first memory of oversteer?

[Goodspeed]

^ :thumbup: both of us were pwnt by having MKIII's as first cars. I don't think I had yet seen a pic of that one btw.

[BLINGMW]

Good stories! :thumbup:
I don't have any pre-driving memories of my dad almost killing us, all of my almost dying experiences seem to be my own. :oops:
But I do remember my dad taking me to the VWCC parking lot in the family Galant in the snow. Exactly like this one:

We played around with the e-brake a little, low speed, nothing too exciting, but it was enough to get the idea. He came from OH, so he considered this essential driver training. I think it was maybe a year later I was driving that car around in the winter, rescuing my friends whose parents were too scared to let them drive.

My best memories though have to be instructing kids at a teen driving program in ATL, which took place on a soapy parking lot. I had one girl drifting her dad's 944 by the end of the day. Actually I cannot take much credit, she was just awesome and 15yr old girls listen better than 15yr old boys. And then there's nothing quite like the feeling of sitting in the 3rd row of a mini-van when that thing came around! :lol: :vomit:

[Jeff]

What about understeer? One of my first times driving alone at night, it was raining and I was at the helm of my 1991 Chrysler Lebaron Convertible. I was following a friend to his place with maybe a little to much enthusiasm. He turned all of a sudden to go a back way I never liked to use but I went to follow him anyway. That big V6 drop top plowed across the road like I never turned the wheel and came to a stop less them one inch form a post that used to be a telephone pole. Poo-poo-panties.

As for oversteer...I can remember one wild ride. I was driving Sylvia's 1990 (she had two, I think it was that one) Dodge Dynasty back from her house to mine. There is a long sweeping turn by a church as you are coming into Edinburg. I was messing with the radio or something and got off the road to the right and over corrected way hard. That big SOB came around on me and swapped ends. I was facing the other way in the dirt on the other side of the road. Lucky I didn't crash some shit up, that was another one that left me cussing.

Ok ok one more! It was the 4th of July and I was out with my then roommate/renter when I first moved into my own place after college. I had that 200? Chrysler Crossfire coupe with the 6-speed manual. We were headed back home from going to watch the fire works and get some more beers when I decided it would be fun to do some doughnuts in the Lowes parking lot. I turned the ESP off and revved it way up when we came in and did a decent doughnut but when I came out of it the car whipped around the other way in a violent oversteer and came around the other direction as if going in a figure eight. I was still on the power with the car going sideways with the benz ESP loosing its shit. We stopped less then 3/4 of an inch from the back of the row of trailers in the parking lot. We were both screaming like little girls. If he wouldn't have pulled his arm in it might have got him. :vomit:

[Senor_Taylor]

Oh, Understeer now?

So just last winter I was driving home from work on that day that we got BLASTED with snow. You guys know what day it was, it was a Sunday and my buddy and I were heading home from work. Me in my truck on almost completely bald tires and him in his Taurus with brand new tires.

I drove the 20 miles back to my house behind him so I could help him if he slid off or anything. We drove 30 MPH down 460, which is a 65 MPH rode. Then when we got on the last highway to our houses, I stopped and put it in 4wd. I did fine doing 30 until I got home. My driveway is on the left side of the road and the road just so happens to slant to the right a shit ton. Fresh snow that was probably 5-6 inches deep at this point and my tires weren't getting any less bald, I knew I wouldn't make it. Especially considering turning in 4WD without one tire spinning is impossible. I slowed down to a crawl and babied the turn. Barely turning the wheel and still plowing right up to the ditch. Good thing not many people were on the rode, because it took about a 20 point turn to get to where I could drive up my slick ass driveway in a straight line.

[BFisch06]

So neither of my parents are car people. My mom had a 6.6L Trans-Am back in the day and my dad chose to buy two Olds Cutlasses. I barely recall the Cutlass, but we had a Volvo 740 GLE until I was about 13. That was the last RWD car my parents owned. It was replaced by a Buick Regal, which came to be my first car. My parents never drove in the snow and I ended up being this guy:

whose parents were too scared to let them drive.

Anyway, my first experience with oversteer ended up being in Michigan just after (read: 2 weeks) I started working for GM. I worked hard in high school and got into my choice school. Beyond that I got a highly-coveted co-op position at GM. I'm hot shit. I've put in the time and I'm reaping the rewards. GM puts me on downtime tracking at a plant in Lansing 2 hours away from my apartment, so I get to live out of a hotel room each week. Therefore I get a company car. :thumbup: The company cars aren't Cobalts - no, I had a brand-frickin-new Cadillac STS. Coming from my Olds Intrigue I was pretty pumped and I didn't even have to pay for gas! It had the northstar V8, 5.1 surround in the seats, and RWD. The 5-speed auto even had that cool new "bump-shift" / "tiptronic" / whatever-you-call-it shift system. I think it was Wednesday night and I come out of the plant at 2:30 AM. It had snowed a good 1.5 or 2 feet during my shift. I grew up in Roanoke so I was all hock: . Then I remote started the car 8) and was like "oh yeah, this will be fun...". I got out of the plant and away from all the other workers leaving with no fuss - nice and easy, keeping it slow. There was a back way to the hotel that my mentor had shown me. One road turned off of a more major one and you had to drive a mile or so and then turn right onto the road the hotel was on (though I didn't have more than 200 yards to drive after making the turn). So I approach the turn, downshift into 2nd or 3rd and stomp the throttle as I turn right. I mean, that's how they do it in the movies, right? I knew enough from driving the Intrigue in Michigan snow that braking wasn't necessarily going to fix this problem. I quickly pulled back on the throttle, but that didn't fix the problem. NOPE. I had no clue what do to, so I just kept trying stuff - mostly steering inputs. I wasn't out of control enough to want to stop - but I had no idea how to manipulate the wheel correctly. Cadillac's are not designed for the amount of steering input I provided in the next 10 or so seconds. In the end I fishtailed down the road to my hotel, passed it, decided it was time to use the brakes, and finally came to a stop in the middle of the road. :oops: I put it in reverse, slowly backed up the road, pulled into the hotel parking lot and went inside. I usually went in by the front desk and said 'Hi' to whoever was working, but that night I went in a side entrance. :roll:

I spent the rest of that week driving slowly. The next week there was less snow and I did it again, but with a much better idea of how. It was a lot more fun the week after that when I got a Cadillac SRX with the V8! :twisted:

[Ryan T]

Understeer? Got my first taste of that before I got my license. I was scraping the snow off our driveway with the tractor and in the back of the driveway there was a 90 degree downhill turn into the garage. I was going faster than I should have because, after all, I had just bought Metal Gear Solid and this damn snowy driveway was keeping me from saving the earth. Also, it was cold as balls and our tractor is open top. Anyways, started down the hill and turned left at the edge of the driveway to start clearing that section off and as I turned...the tractor did not. Slid right off the side of the driveway and hit the snow covered grass. Cut the throttle and got on the rear brakes but I was headed straight for our brand new barn doors. When I realized I wasn't going to get stopped before I hit the barn I lowered the hydraulics on the 3 point hitch all the way down and dug the scraper blade into the ground. Made a huge mess out of the yard but I got the tractor stopped in time. I could tell through the yelling that while my dad was mad..he was proud of the quick thinking too. Sorry I don't have a better picture of "Ole Massey"

[Dave]

Thayer wins the Virgin of Understeer award (copyright pending), unless somebody was driving a semi or a plane for their first time...