Learn to better negotiate curves and corners on highways.

How to Drive on Curvy Roads & Maintain Better Control

https://youtu.be/rVG3EBSY-dY

Closed Caption

Introduction

Hi there Smart Drivers.

Rick with Smart Drive Test, talking to you today about how to negotiate curves, corners, and turns, with more control, and maybe a little faster speed.

Now just before we get started here, be sure to hit that subscribe button, just about there.

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Now, negotiating curves corners and turns…and here we can learn something from racing, especially NASCAR, which is the first technique and strategy that I’m going to show you which is outside-inside-outside.

It’s called straightening out the corner.

And yes, not just making left turns in NASCAR, but straightening out the corner and forcing the vehicle to do less work and able to go faster through the corner by straightening it out.

The next strategy we’re gonna show you is used in Grand Prix and rally car racing and other forms of racing, when they take the longest line through the curve as you can see here in the video, most drivers take the shortest line through the curve.

And that’s not what you want to do to have better control of the vehicle.

If you take the longer line through the curve and maximize the space and the curve, you’re gonna require the vehicle to do less work, and by doing less work you’re gonna have more control of the vehicle.

The last strategy and technique that I’m going to show you is twofold, first of all never brake in a corner, slow down and brake before the curve or corner, and as you’re going through the curve and corner, accelerate, have your foot on the throttle or the gas pedal, that way you have power to the wheels.

You don’t need to be accelerating wildly but you do want power to the wheels.

If it’s a rear-wheel drive, you’re going to push through the corner.

And if you have a front-wheel drive, you’re going to pull through the corner.

And that will give you more control.

And then finally, the last part of the third strategy, look where you want the vehicle to go, the vehicle will go where you’re looking and sometimes that might mean looking through shrubbery and other fixed objects to see the other side of the curve, and see where the road is going.

If you look where you want the vehicle to go, the vehicle will go in that direction.

So today what we’re going to do, we’re going to give you a little bit more information here on the white board, and then we’re going to go to the vehicle we’re gonna put these strategies and techniques into place, and show you how they work in practice.

So that’s what we got lined up for you today.

So stick around, I’ll be right back with that information.

Hey there Smart Drivers, welcome back.

Rick with Smart Drive Test, talking to you today about: Curves, corners and turns.

And how to negotiate these with more control and maybe even a little bit more speed.

The first strategy that I talked about is straightening out the curve.

And you can see this in NASCAR racing and NASCAR not just making left-hand turns on an oval track, but straightening out the curve.

When they come into the corner they start on the top of the corner on the outside of the curve, and then they take this line through the curve, so they start outside – inside.

They’re here, and then they’re out here, actually they’re pointed down the track here, and then they can set up for the next curve.

That’s called “Outside-Inside-Outside” and they’re straightening out the curve.

By straightening out the curve and requiring less turning of the vehicle, they can go faster through the curve and maintain more control, because as as I’ve said in other videos: The slower you go with any vehicle, the sharper it turns.

The faster it goes, the less sharp it turns, because you’re forcing the vehicle to overcome the centrifugal forces of the vehicle wanting to go outside of the curve.

And if you lose traction on the front end on the steer tires and the vehicle continues to go straight even though you want to turn, that’s called “Under Steering”.

And one of the ways that you can overcome that is oftentimes if you don’t have steering, you’ve got your foot too hard on the brake and when you have too much on the brake, you simply release the brake, and that will bring back your steering, also mostly by that time you’ve also slowed down a little bit, so that’ll also bring back your steering.

As well, if you’ve got a front-wheel drive vehicle and you’re into the throttle and the front wheels start spinning they’re also going to lose steering ability, so simply take your foot off the accelerator.

Now just as another side note I’ve said in other videos, the reasons that we lose control of vehicles is because of overuse of the primary controls — Too much steering, too much throttle, too much brake — If you release one of those, and let one of those go down, you’re going to regain control of the vehicle.

The other strategy that’s used by race-car drivers, more so Grand-Prix and Rally Car racing and those types of racing, is that they take the outside line on the curve.

So instead of taking this line on the inside as most drivers do, as you can see the white car here right over on the fog line going around on the right hand corner and right out to the right-hand side.

If you’re going around on the right hand corner, you want to stay to the left.

If you’re going around on a left-hand corner, you want to stay around to the right.

So instead of taking this inside line, what you want to do in your vehicle is you want to stay to this outside line, out here, and that way you’re going to maximize the space in the corner, curve or turn, and you’re going to require your vehicle to do less work going around the corner.

Now on a road test for the purposes of turns, don’t stay to the outside, try and straighten the corner out by outside-inside-outside.

Especially the larger the vehicle that you have, that’s going to become more important, and we’ll talk about that in commercial driving videos.

But for the most part, curves and corners, you want to stay to the outside and that will give you more control through the corner, because you’re requiring the vehicle to do less turning as you’re going through the corner.

Now obviously for the purposes of driving on a roadway you have to stay in your own lane, you cannot get out of your own lane.

And for most of us who drive mid-sized vehicles there is a couple of feet on either side of the vehicle that you can move over, either to the left or to the right.

And as well, the road markings kind of deceive us a little bit, you can actually drive over the road markings.

You can see oftentimes the markings on a racetrack, the chicanes, and those types of things, the drivers drive over those, to try and maximize the space on the track.

And you can do that as well in your lane when you’re driving.

You can see here in the dashcam that I too drive over the fog line to try and maximize the space on the roadway and so that you can do that.

And the other thing is here when you’re coming up here.

So say you’re driving up here you want to follow this line on the outside here, and then you want to come in here and out to the outside.

So you want to be thinking strategically as you’re driving on a windy twisty road how you can maximize the space in the curve, corner, or turn, and how you can straighten it out.

Because if you can do that you’re going to maintain more control through the speeds.

Now, just as I said in the introduction with the caveat, this road that I’m driving on that we’re gonna go on today, I’ve been on it dozens of times, I know the road.

If you don’t know the road, slow down to the cautionary speeds that are recommended by the road signs, on the roadway.

And as well if there’s any question about the conditions of the roadway — If it’s slippery, if there’s snow or ice on it, or it’s raining — then slow down even more, so that you can maintain traction and maintain steering, as you’re negotiating the curves, corners and turns.

So what we’re gonna do now, we’re gonna go out to the car, and we’re gonna take you for a drive on the road, Silver Star Road up to Silver Star ski resort, and we’re gonna show you how this works in practice on a windy twisty road.

Straightening out the curves, and staying to the outside line, so that you can maximize the space in the curve.

So, let’s go out to the vehicle.

Hi there Smart Drivers, we are in the car now.

And we’re gonna go for a drive and show you how to do the two techniques that I talked about there in the studio, on the whiteboard with taking the longest path through the curve and also trying to straighten the curve out by going outside-inside-outside.

And we have a very narrow road here going up to Silver Star ski resort, and it’s windy and twisty.

And we’ll show you how to do that, those two techniques that will help you to have better control of the vehicle, and to maybe go a little bit faster than you normally would.

So let’s get going with that.

So you just saw the sign there for the wintertime to carry chains, or to have snow tires fitted on your vehicle, for driving up to the ski resort here.

And you can see that it’s windy and twisty, and we’re going around to the right here.

So you want to stay to the left, that’s the other technique that you can do and keep in your head: Is to when you’re going right, stay left.

And what you’re going left, stay right.

You can see that it’s 40 kilometers an hour, for those of you in the States it’s about 25 miles an hour for these curves.

You can see that we have a 90-degree corner to the right, and that’s the other key piece of information that’s going to help you, not key piece of information, but what’s going to provide information for you, when you’re doing these turns and curves on a highway or road, is to keep an eye out for the road signs, because the road signs will give you information about what’s happening.

As well if you think you might want to pass on a road that is like this, you can see here in the dashcam that it is a single solid line in the middle, and you can pass on that line with caution.

However they put these lines in on roads like this, because they don’t want traffic to be passing because it is such a narrow curvy road, and it is a high-risk maneuver to be passing on these roadways.

I think I just ran over a chipmunk back there…

Which is another key piece: Don’t drive off the road for a small animal life.

You know, I know it’s terrible that you have to run over these animals, and they run out on the roadway, but: Do not risk your own safety for a small animal.

So you saw there, I went around to the left, and I stayed right out to the right side of the road, I took the longest path through the curve.

And same thing here, you can see it’s 45 kilometres an hour, 25 miles an hour, and I’m staying right out to the left of the curve here, to take the longest path through the curve.

And again I get out to the right here and I come through and right out to the fog line.

You can see there’s a fair bit of room left and right on the curve, and that’s going to help you to keep control.

And you can see that I’m going considerably faster than 40 kilometers an hour.

Now the other thing you may have seen the saga with the buggy, that the buggy broke down, and the rotor went out of it, and not two days after I got it back and was driving, check engine light came on.

Well, now I have to replace the catalytic converter, because there’s two sensors one in front of the catalytic converter, one behind the catalytic converter, that monitor the oxygen, it’s an oxygen sensor.

Anyway, the one on the back-end of the catalytic converter is telling me that, or telling the mechanic rather, because we took it and plugged it into the computer, that the catalytic converter is not doing its job.

So that’s why the check engine light is on, you can see that in the camera there, if you’re wondering about that.

So, you can see windy, twisty, curvy road here.

And the cautionary signs for suggested speeds are telling you what speeds to go.

Now again you want to “outside-inside- outside”, to make the straightest path through the curve.

And if you can’t do that and straighten out the curve with that technique, that racing technique, the other thing you want to do — is you want to take the longest line through the curve — So if you’re turning to the left, you want to stay to the right.

If you’re turning to the right then you want to stay to the left.

You can see here, again, it’s cautionary 25 miles an hour, 40 kilometers an hour.

And again we stay right out to the right side here to make the curve bigger and demand less work of the vehicle, because the sharper you want the vehicle to turn, the more work it has to do to overcome those centrifugal forces of pushing it out to the left side, in this instance where we’re going around a curve to the right.

Because, remember, as I said earlier in the video, Newton’s first principle of gravity and centrifugal forces and what not: An object in motion will tend to remain in motion, unless acted upon by another force.

And in this case that force is the centrifugal force of pushing you out on the curve.

And the other thing is, is if you can pull through the curve and accelerate, so you want to slow down before you get to the curve, and then accelerate gently through the curve, you’re again going to have more control, because you’re pulling through the curve.

If you brake, what you’re doing is lifting up the back-end, and the back-end is going to spin around, it’s called oversteering, when you go through a corner and the back end comes around.

If you turn the wheels and the vehicle just continues to go straight, that’s called under steering.

So you can see how I do this I just stay, I’m going to the left here, so I just stay out to the right and take the longest path through the curve.

You can see that I’m going considerably faster than 40 kilometers an hour, I’m doing the posted speed limit on this hill of 80 kilometers an hour which is 50 miles an hour.

I’m not driving incredibly fast, but I can negotiate the curves a lot better, because I’m taking the longest path through the curve.

If you watch most drivers, most drivers are going to take the shortest path, they’re going to stay to the inside of the curve, as opposed to the outside of the curve.

And if you stay to the outside of the curve, it’s going to be easier on your vehicle, and you’re going to have better control of your vehicle.

The other thing that you want to do for curves, corners, and turns, is — you want to be looking farther down the road, you want to look where you’re going — Because if you look where you’re going, the vehicle will go where you’re looking, so you need to be looking where you want the vehicle to go.

And it’s important for curves, corners and turns, especially at night, you need to be looking through the curve and sometimes that will involve you looking through shrubbery, through a bush, through trees, and those types of things, you want to be looking as far as you can around the corner.

And again we’re going to the right here, so we stay out to the left, to take the longest path through the curve.

And again I can’t see around the corner, because there’s a hill there, as you can see in the dashcam, but I’m looking as far as I can through the curve.

And again I’m staying left because the curve is going right.

I’m going downhill here, because obviously we’re coming down from the ski resort here.

So I’m checking in the mirror before I apply the brakes to make sure that there isn’t anybody behind me.

And now I’m looking off to the left, as far as I can see.

And there you saw that I straightened the curve off, it was very subtle.

I’m outside, now I’m coming inside, and I’m gonna drive straight through to the outside again.

So we’re doing that technique of both maximizing the amount of space through the curve, by staying to the outside of the curve, and we’re straightening it off when we can.

You can’t always straighten it off with the “outside- inside-outside”, but you can always stay to the outside of the curve, to require the vehicle to do less work to overcome that centrifugal force.

And there you saw in that one that I did the “outside-inside-outside” to straighten the curve off.

Okay and that in combination with looking where you want the vehicle to go, looking as far through the curve as you can, and this one we’re going to the right, we’re staying right out to the line, to the left side, but we’re still staying right up the center line.

And again, staying right over to the right side, as we’re coming through the curve, and I’m looking through the curve, so I’m looking right down in this direction here.

Right out to the right side, actually I’m a little bit over the fog line there.

Okay, checking my mirror, and again, I’m right out to the left side here, I’m tight to the center line, I’m not over the center line.

And I’m looking, and I can see where the roadway is going as I’m coming down the hill.

And again, outside-inside, straight through, to the outside, and I’m right up to the outside.

And that’s how you straighten out the curve, and take the longest line through the curve.

And that way your vehicle isn’t going to have to work so hard to come over centrifugal force, and you can maintain better control because your tires have better grip.

You have to realize that the amount of grip is only about six square inches on the bottom of a tire that is actually making contact with the road, so you’re relying on a very little patch of rubber to maintain traction while you’re going through a curve.

And obviously the more you slow down, the sharper the vehicle is going to turn and the more you’re going to have control.

So if you’re not comfortable going faster, slow down, especially in slippery conditions.

If you’re going up to the ski hill or the wintertime and it gets slippery with a bit of snow on it, you definitely want to slow down to get more traction.

And so that is another example of how you can maintain control while you’re driving your vehicle through curvy, twisty roads.

Especially here in the mountains, and you’re going up to the ski resort to have some fun.

The other point that I mentioned in the introduction is, is that when you’re coming through curves, corners and turns: You don’t want to be braking.

There’s your slow-moving vehicle sign, I’ll put a video up in the corner for you on the slow moving vehicle sign, it was a piece of industrial equipment there.

And so the point that I was making about curves, corners and turns, is you don’t want to be braking in the turn, you want to be accelerating through the turn.

So have a speed that is appropriate for the road that you’re on on this one for example is 50 kilometers an hour, for the one up on the hill there was 80 kilometers an hour, and you want to slow down before the turn, whether just taking your foot off the throttle, or braking, and then you want to have slight acceleration through the turn.

And you do not want to be braking in the corner, regardless of class of license, whether it’s a truck, a bus, or a car, because what happens is when you brake in the corner, you lift the back end of the vehicle up and upset the equilibrium in the vehicle, when you lift the back end up it will start to come around, and that’s called over steering.

So you want to slow down before the curve whether that’s just letting off the throttle or actually braking and slowing the vehicle, and then you want to have gentle acceleration through the curve, you want to be powering through the curve, you don’t need to be accelerating but you do need power to the wheels to be pushing the vehicle through the curve.

And that is the other way that you are going to have better control of the vehicle as you’re going through the curves, corners, and turns.

And it’s the same thing with your turns, for those of you having trouble: Slow down before the curve, halfway through the curve at about the midpoint of your turn, you’re going to be accelerating out of the corner, curve or turn, and that way you’re going to maintain better control of your vehicle as you’re moving through the curve, corner or turn.

So do not brake in the curve, corner, or turn, that will cause you to lose control, potentially.

So slow down before the curve, corner, or turn, and then accelerate slowly, or accelerate gently through the curve.

You don’t need to be accelerating aggressively, just power to the wheels, so that you’re either: If it’s a front-wheel drive, you’re pulling through the curve.

And if it’s a rear-wheel drive, you’re pushing through the curve.

And you’re going to have better traction as you’re going through the curve, corner, or turn.

Quick review of curves, corners and turns.

Two techniques that you can use to go through the corner with more control, and maybe a little bit faster too — if you’re into the racing sort of thing — is “outside- inside-outside” which will straighten the curve off: So you come outside of the curve, down into the inside of the curve, and then back to the outside of the curve.

That straightens it out, and allows you to have more control as you’re going through the curve.

It’s something that you see in NASCAR all the time, you know when Jeff Dunham jokingly says “They’re making a left turn!!” that’s what they’re doing, they move to the outside, down into the inside, and then back out to the outside to set up for the next turn, so they straighten out the turn.

The other way that race car drivers, and you as well, can maintain more control through the curve, corner, or turn, is to take the outside line: So if you’re going right, stay left.

If you’re going left, stay right.

Essentially you’re taking the outside line and you’re not forcing the vehicle to turn as sharp.

Therefore if you’re not forcing the vehicle to turn as sharp, you’re gonna have better control, because there isn’t going to be as much centrifugal force.

And then the last thing is: Slow down before you get to the curve, do not brake in the curve.

You want to maintain an appropriate speed, so that you can have constant acceleration as you’re going through the curve, not like zooming through the curve, I mean you can, but you just want simple power to the wheels, so that you’re pushing or pulling the vehicle through, depending on whether you have a front wheel, or a rear-wheel drive vehicle.

Because if you brake in the corner what’s going to happen is, you’re gonna lift the back-end of the vehicle up, because most of the braking is done with the front brakes of the vehicle, and you’re gonna upset that equilibrium of the vehicle, and potentially lose control.

And if the back end starts to come around that’s called oversteering, because the vehicle is overcompensating.

If you’re going too fast into the curve, and you’re trying to turn, and the vehicle just continues to go straight, because you’re on slippery conditions, you’re in rain or snow or ice or that sort of thing: That’s called “Under Steering”.

And under steering scares the driver, over steering scares the passenger.

So just know those jokes for the purposes of curves, corners and turns.

So those are the strategies and techniques that you can employ to have better control as you’re going through curves, corners and turns.

And then, of course, know that the slower you go, the more traction you’re going to have, and the more control you’re going to have.

So if you’re not comfortable going at the speed suggested, either you know if you’re on a highway, or the cautionary signs, then go at a speed that you’re comfortable with that is going to allow you to have control and keep, maintain comfort with your own driving abilities.

Don’t overdrive your driving abilities ok.

Question for my Smart Drivers: Were you having difficulty with curves, corners and turns? Leave a comment down in the comment section there, all of that helps out the new drivers, working towards becoming better drivers, and having more control of their vehicle in different driving situations.

If you like what you see here: Share, subscribe, leave a comment down in the comment section.

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Check out all the videos here on the channel if you’re working towards a license, or starting your career as a Truck or Bus Driver, lots of great information here.

As well head over to the Smart Drive Test website, more great information over there.

As well for those of you going for your first license, if you look down in the description there, and look for the coupon code, you can get “Pass Your Road Test First Time Guaranteed” 30% off, the regular price is $38.95, so you can get it for about $20, and that will guarantee that you pass your road test, first time, guaranteed, or your money back within 30 days.

I’m Rick with Smart Drive Test, thanks very much for watching, good luck on your road test, and remember: Pick the best answer, not necessarily the right answer.

Have a great day, bye now.

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