9 replies to this topic

[Math Soucy]

After reading the very educational posts from mikabest's "Overteering and Understeering in F1" I wonder if I could ask for an explanation or definition of "opposite lock" which I've both read and heard reported during Grands Prix. I've heard Hobbs' on speedvision one race state: There's Coulthard in the Mclaren, applying the opposite lock. Or words to that affect, and I rewound that segment a few times and just didn't pick up anything that demonstable in his driving technique. I thought that it maybe required a trained eye to pick it up, or that he may have been commenting on something which had happened just seconds before which had not been picked up in the coverage. Then I read about Montoya applying the opposite lock in the 2000 Indy 500, so then I thought it may be a driving technique not restricted to road racing. Thanks to all.

[wati]

Opposite lock is when the rear steps out and you turn your wheel in the opposite direction to correct the car. Looks great when done in an F1 car.

[Crazy Canuck]

Wati is correct but to elaborate -

imagine you are driving around a right hand bend. At the apex the car transfers into an oversteer condition: simply put the rear end slides out of the path of the front wheels. If no correction was made the car would spin off the track. To correct the oversteer condition the driver may apply opposite lock. This means you would turn the steering wheel left. So "opposite" comes form the fact that the driver steers the car the opposite way the track goes and "lock" refers to the steering rack [i.e the max number of revolutions the steering wheel can rotate is called "turns lock to lock"]

Hope this helps!!

CC

[rdrcr]

Looks pretty good in any car actually...

This maneuver is dramatic but does little in terms of over all quickness and is more commonly associated with a term called the "catch and save"... Unless, it is in fact a consistent part of the driver's form.

Several drivers routinely use opposite lock to throw the car through a specific section... IMO, Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna were classic opposite lock drivers... Of the current crop, JPM displays quite a bit of that flair as well.

If JPM was using opposite lock at the Indy 500, it must have been a maneuver to avoid something or to save the car, one would never employ opposite lock driving an oval where smoothness is the key to fastest.

[Crazy Canuck]

Originally posted by rdrcr
...Several drivers routinely use opposite lock to throw the car through a specific section... IMO, Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna were classic opposite lock drivers... Of the current crop, JPM displays quite a bit of that flair as well.

Keke Rosberg also drove in this style. Some call it reckless, others flamboyant, I call it cool!

CC

[mikabest]

Math,
If you have a chance to watch rally driving you'll see some excellent examples of "opposite lock". They're doing that constantly especially when they are not driving on asphalt but on gravel. The cars are seldom going straight on but most of the time a bit sideaways even on short straights. If you then watch their front wheels you'll notice the technique of steering to the opposite direction from where your car's nose is aimig. We Finns who are used to drive in snow- and ice-conditions are very familiar with that thing and it's quite funny.... perhaps not for the first time when you find yourself sliding but otherwise yes...

yours,
ever so biased MIKABEST

[rdrcr]

Quite true Mika... In Rally competitions full opposite-lock is the norm for getting a car to move through a corner, often set-up by pitching the car the opposite way of the corner first, then applying full opposite-lock through the corner, full power on, and navigator praying!

It is the best example of this type of driving... Just watch the WRC and that will tell you who the best in car control really is...

Not to suprising to find Finns at the front of that series either... as past chamipons include Tommi Makinen, and isn't the current champ Marcus Grönholm also a Finn?

Seems like a lot of really good drivers are coming out of that country... must be all of that opposite-lock driving in the snow as kids...

[Math Soucy]

Many thanks, as always, to all respondents. I always receive lightning-fast answers to questions I just haven't had much luck finding in books or in periodicals; although, in fairness, many of my questions may be considered common racing knowledge which need no explanation.

[mtl'78]

The master at work:

http://www.forix.com...80/04002_er.jpg

[unrepentant lurker]

If you have a highbandwidth connection you can download this video and see numerous examples of opposite lock from any number of angles.

This is a huge file 69megs - its 5'14" long but the first 1'01" is useless. I wish the guy who made the vid chopped it off.

Anyway, http://www.softlab.e.....Vatanen).mpeg