1. 10 | www.prnmag.com
The Joy of Oversteer
Episode Five:
Dear Aaron,
When a car gets sideways (oversteer or fish
tailing) to correct it do you turn the steering wheel
half a turn or more or less? How do you get the
feeling of what a car is doing?
Pierre Siaramsed
Montreal
Mailbag
step...thenext by Aaron Povoledo
Hello Pierre,
Great question, Pierre. This is honestly one of
my favorite subjects in the whole wide world. Being
sideways in a car is one of life’s greatest pleasures
– to me at least. Actually, come to think of it – it
is probably in my top 2 favorite things of all time,
and most definitely the only one on that list worth
printing.
Yes- I confess, I am an oversteer junkie. Growing
up as a kid I idolized Mr. Gilles Villenueve (father
of Jacques). He was a God of oversteer and to this
day I challenge you to find an image more daring,
romantic and down right impressive then the sight
of one of our national heroes driving the wheels off
his F1 Ferrari, sideways - at places like Monaco,
Watkins Glen or Long Beach!
To further this point go to youtube and enter
“Dijon 1979” and watch Gilles epic battle with
Rene Arnoux. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl2tIF
xSEGA&feature=related
So to make a long story short, from a very early
age mastering the art of oversteer was pretty high
on my priority list, and it still is.
I consider it a blessing that I have been able to
develop these skills and translate them to others
through working with some of the best race, rally
and skid control schools in the world.
As for your question, the answer is I have no idea.
Every situation is different and requires its own
amount of steering. What I can explain is what
controls your steering inputs and what to focus on to
maximize your effectiveness behind the wheel.
In short, it is about how the human eye controls
our motor skills, but first we need to take a step
back and look at a few basics.
1) How do you recognize oversteer?
2) Which direction do we turn the wheel?
3) The truth about vision. What we are looking at
will determine how we turn the wheel. Look where
you want to go and the steering wheel will follow.
1) Recognizing Oversteer
Conventional wisdom suggests that we feel over-
steer- the seat of the pants sensation. This notion is
partially true. We have proprioceptors in our skin and
muscles detecting movement, sensory neurons in
our inner ear detecting motion and orientation, and
on a more obvious scale we can feel the steering
wheel getting heavier as a car starts to rotate – BUT,
these are not primary indicators.
Want proof? Ever play a video game? You can
drift; slide and fish tail a car on your X-Box, PC, or
PS3 all day long, sitting on the couch. Zero move-
ment, zero balance change, zero steering wheel load.
The main indicator that tells us the car is starting to
Our faithful columnist abusing some nice man’s Porsche GT2- ED.
From the Editor: Aaron Povoledo’s column, The Next Step,
debuted in our April issue with the intent of providing advice to readers
looking to make the transition from motoring/motorsports enthusiast to
participant. With his years of experience as a professional driver and driving
instructor in North America and Britain, Povoledo is definitely an authority
within the world of motorsports and advanced driver training, and someone
who could serve as an ideal resource for our readers.
Since his columns began appearing, reader feedback has begun to flow into Povoledo’s
PRN email account. Now that his column has been out there for a little while, we thought
we’d take this opportunity to share some of the letters he has received along with a response.
We will publish more of Povoledo’s mail in future issues of PRN, so please keep sending
your questions and comments to aaron@prnmag.com - some technical issues occurred
with the first few emails, and so if you have sent a request to Aaron and haven’t heard
back, please re-send your email.

2. »» Regular winner in regional and national level
karting
»» Canadian Regional F2000 Champion
»» World Scholarship winner from Jim Russell
Racing UK
»» Voted by Autosport Magazine as one of the top 5
up and coming drivers in the UK in 1997
»» Player’s Racing team driver 1998 – 2000
»» Winner of Canadian Grand Prix F.Ford race
»» Pole position at Molson Indy, F.Ford
»» Record number of Poles in Canadian Champ Car
Lights
»» 5 wins, 3 seconds and 2 thirds in CCL
»» ALMS with Carsport America in the Viper GTSR
Aaron Povoledo:
Credentialsand Career bio
www.prnmag.com | 11
»» Victory, pole and fastest lap in touring car debut
»» Pole Position at Trois-Riviers in Hankook Touring
car series
»» Lap record holder at Mosport since 2000
»» Pole Position at 2005 BMW CCA O’Fest feature race.
»» Podium finish in first Grand-Am cup race
»» Top ten finish (7th) in Rolex series debut, - 9hr Sun
Chaser, MMP
»» 5 race wins and 7 lap records (including out right
record at Watkins Glen and Tremblant) in BMW Club
racing series
»» Qualified no lower than 4th in 2007 KONI Challenge ST
»» Led every race entered in 2007 KONI Challenge season
»» Pole + most laps led, Koni Challenge 2008 Watkins Glen
slide is our eyes. Visually we detect axis change.
It is all about the visual frame of reference that
you are seeing and the changes that occur when
you slide.
To simplify: Say you are driving down the road
and your eyes are seeing the road ahead of you,
with the overpasses, traffic, other landmarks and
so on. The car starts to rotate and suddenly you are
seeing the ditch, a tree, the field beyond it. At this
point your brain kicks in and says – “something
looks different here”
When driving (whether racing or going to the
grocery store), always look up. Keep the horizon
as your visual resting point. The farther you see
ahead, the larger your visual frame of reference,
the more sensitive your eyes are to detecting that
frame of reference changing (i.e.- axis change).
All of this means you will detect your oversteer
sooner. The early stages of oversteer are exponen-
tially easier to cure than full on later stage oversteer,
which if left treated for too long can be incurable.
It is easier said than done and there are two big
things working against us – posture and the habits
induced by posture.
Looking up, ahead and keeping the horizon as
your target are not natural things to do. Reason
being when sitting in the average chair – office,
dinner, or car – the natural resting angle of your
neck and spine leaves your head tilting slightly
down. Typically in a car this leaves your line of
sight resting slightly down, approximately 5-6 car
lengths ahead. In most cases the horizon is slightly
farther up the road.
Looking 5-6 car lengths ahead diminishes your
visual frame of reference, and lowers your over-
steer detection time. For most drivers this visual
lead time becomes a habit, ingrained in the muscle
memory of everyday driving, and like any bad habit
it is not easy to change.
If you’re near a computer go to YouTube, enter
my name and have a look at some educational
videos featuring yours truly in the Lexus ISF.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHANIBGJGJs.
We detect oversteer through our eyes picking up
on axis change. On to the next step.
2) Turn the steering wheel.
STEER INTO THE SKID! For years we have all
heard this and for years people have been confused
- “does this mean in the direction of the skid, or
against the direction of the skid?”
Let’s make it simple. Ditch is bad. Road is good.
Keep the front wheels pointed towards the road.
Take a moment and try this at home. Hold an
imaginary steering wheel and visualize the car
spinning to the left – this would make the imaginary
“road ahead” to your right – or what was originally
your centre. To keep the front wheels pointing in the
direction of the “road ahead” you would be steering
to the right, but in reality all you are doing is keeping
the steering wheel pointing in the direction of the
“road ahead” or the preferential target. Keep your
imaginary steering wheel pointed at the road and
your body pivoting around it to the left and right. The
car is rotating but we are keeping the steering wheel
pointed at the “road ahead”.
Have a close look at the photo below. Gilles is
well and truly out of shape but his front wheels are
lined up perfectly straight – aiming at the road ahead,
which also happens to be in line with the horizon.
Which brings us to the original question: How
much do we turn? A half-turn or more or less? (And
how quickly do we do this?)
And to expand upon my original answer: Only
your eyes can tell.
3) The truth about vision
Our eyes are what co-ordinate the movements
of our body. Out of a possible 180 degrees of vision
(peripheral left to peripheral right) there is a very
narrow band called our Foveal or Central Vision that
acts as our targeting system. It is this Central vision
that allows us to catch a football, ski between the
tree’s, walk through a door way and steer a car.
Think of it in terms of visual co-ordinates. When
driving you constantly need to provide your hands
with the correct co-ordinates.
The goal is to keep the front wheels pointed at
the road ahead, therefore your hands need to be
steering the wheel in that direction – but how do
your hands know where the road ahead is? By
looking at it with your central vision.
It really is that simple.
Honestly, doing that can be extremely hard, in
part due to it being counterintuitive. Let me pause
briefly to differentiate the two types of oversteer:
Intentional and unintentional. When we are playing
around in an empty parking lot provoking oversteer,
we are ready and waiting. When it happens by
surprise it is a whole new ballgame. Oversteer is
much harder to correct when it is unexpected.
Here’s why:
When we are surprised by something it is our
natural tendency to focus on it. This is called target
fixation. Think of the countless tales of a car hitting
the one tree within miles of the scene – target
fixation. When you rear-end the car in front when
the lanes to the left and right are wide open – target
fixation. Think of a deer jumping in front of your
car – that would get your attention right? But by
looking at that deer all we are doing is giving our
hands the coordinates of the deer – what we need
to do is look around Bambi and give our hands a
different set of co-ordinates.
A car spinning is exactly the same – the ditch,
the tree and the field grab our attention and more
importantly our Central vision - the exact moment
when your attention and eyes need to be on the
”road ahead”.
Mastering oversteer is a matter of keeping your
eyes focused on where you want the car to go. The
miracle of human biomechanics will take care of
the rest.
Hands at 9 & 3, eyes up!
Cheers,
Aaron