How To Drive A Motorcar
A Key To The Subtleties Of Motoring

SKIDDING TO AVOID AN ACCIDENT but not declutching. The brake must not be applied to such an extent as to lose control over the precise direc- tion of the car. Head the car directly at the near-side comer, and just as the front wheels arrive there set the steering wheels to steer round the corner, firmly dab on the brake (which will cause the back of the car to swing round), and the instant the back wheels are approxi- mately parallel with the front wheels accelerate to the utmost. Sometimes it is necessary to make a dive for the offside of the road into which one has thus turned, waiting until the last moment to correct this direction into a straight line up the road. The latter part of the manœuvre is, of course, to counterbalance the efter effects of the skid, and a comer can be taken at greater speed if this movement is adopted than by the former part of the manœuvre only. Similarly, if it is a bend, the procedure is akin to that already mentioned. It is impossible to lay down a hard-and-fast rule for a sharp bend, as the procedure to be adopted varies according to the bend in question. However, the main idea remains the same, namely, to rely on the skid and to check that by sudden accelera- tion, and then, by steering against the skid and the acceleration to maintain the stability of the car. There is another situation which has likewise caused a number of accidents, that is, where the driver is foolishly driving at too high a speed for the distance of clear road actually under his observation, and is then encountered with something which directly blocks up the road, as, for instance, a tree blown down or a broken-down traction engine, or some other obstruction. In such cases, if it is impossible to stop by brake appli- cation in the ordinary way, safety may be ensured by turning the car round completely in the road and ad- vancing backwards as before described, and then turn- ing it round again from backwards to forwards, and continuing in the ordinary way. The side slithering of the tyres in these two manœuvres has a very great brak- ing effect. Here, again, nothing but rank bad driving or inordinate stupidity by some third party should bring into being the necessity for such an action. To some 117