Pressing the accelerator pedal
The accelerator pedal is not an on/off switch. Pressing the accelerator gently in certain situations can help you get the most out of your vehicle’s handling. This gentle action is called pressing the accelerator pedal, and it is an important form of throttle control. This technique, used correctly, can even save your life.
How does this concept work and when is it needed? Here are some driving techniques and situations in which you should step on the gas pedal.
The Concept of Weight Transfer
Before we can talk about stepping on the gas pedal, we need to understand the concept of weight transfer and how a vehicle maintains traction while driving.
A car contacts the ground at four points where the tires touch the ground. Each tire has a contact patch about the size of the palm of your hand, and the entire weight of the vehicle is distributed across these four points. The more weight that is on a particular tire, the better the traction and the larger the contact patch. When you accelerate, decelerate, or turn, the weight of your vehicle shifts from one side to the other. When accelerating, your weight shifts rearward, reducing the contact patch of your front tires and increasing the contact patch of your rear tires. The same is true when turning from left to right.
When you accelerate, move your weight rearward gradually, rather than suddenly. A sudden change in weight distribution can very easily result in a loss of traction. This is the main reason why it’s important to press the accelerator pedal in situations where you could easily exceed your traction limits. When to press the accelerator pedal
In each of the following situations, the key is to not upset the car as you approach the grip limit. Here are some specific situations where you should press the accelerator pedal to better control the throttle:
1) Mid-curve
You don’t want to lose traction in a corner. If you accelerate too much in a corner, your car can easily understeer or oversteer. Understeer is when the front tires lose traction, and oversteer is when the rear tires lose traction.
Front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive
When you accelerate mid-corner in a front-wheel drive car (or most all-wheel drive cars), you might experience understeer. Understeer pushes the car to the outside because one or both front tires lose traction while the driving wheels are spinning.
When you understeer, your car feels like it’s hard to turn, no matter how hard you turn the steering wheel. To prevent understeer, try straightening your steering wheel a little. If that doesn’t work, you can ease off the accelerator or brake just a little and put more weight on the nose of the car.
Too much weight on the nose of the vehicle can cause sudden oversteer, also known as lift-off oversteer, in which the rear of the vehicle swings violently in the opposite direction.
Rear-wheel drive
You can oversteer in a rear-wheel drive car by stepping on the accelerator pedal. One or both rear wheels lose traction and the car rotates in the direction of the turn much faster than intended.
When you experience oversteer, it feels like the car is turning too quickly. Keep your front wheels pointed in the desired direction and accelerate a little (this is also how drifting works). If you let off the gas completely, you may experience sudden oversteer.
2) Driving in the Rain
- When driving in the rain, it’s easy to lose traction, especially if you encounter standing water.
- When driving through standing water, throttle back a little to keep your tires from spinning.
- When you start to get splashed, apply a little throttle to keep your front wheels pointed in the desired direction.
If you encounter a large amount of standing water while driving at high speed, it is best to drive straight.
3) High-performance rear-wheel drive vehicles
Rear-wheel drive vehicles on the list twice? Yes, because the concept of throttle control is especially important for rear-wheel drive drivers, especially those who drive sports cars with over 300 horsepower.
High-performance rear-wheel drive vehicles can skid even when trying to drive in a straight line. You can’t just accelerate by pressing the accelerator, especially in first and second gear. If that happens, you’ll break rear traction and your car will likely spin out like the naughty Mustang owner leaving Cars and Coffee.
As you accelerate, your weight shifts back, which creates a positive feedback loop where more weight allows you to accelerate more, and you can continue to do this until you’re at full throttle.
The purpose of traction control is to limit your acceleration to what your tires can tolerate, essentially helping you get a good grip on the gas. Don’t disable this feature unless you’ve completed some high-performance driver training and know what you’re doing. Every car behaves differently depending on tire compound, suspension settings, and horsepower. Become familiar with your vehicle before attempting hard acceleration in a rear-wheel drive car without traction control.
4) Driving on Ice
Driving on ice is like driving in the rain when it’s only 11 degrees. Driving on ice further limits available traction and makes you more slippery. To avoid losing traction, increase your distance from the car in front of you, brake early, and accelerate carefully when coming away from a stop.
5) Low or Rough Idle
If you have a mechanical problem with the vehicle that causes it to stall or idle roughly, you can sometimes keep the vehicle running by adding a small amount of gas to raise the RPM. This is good to know if you need to limp the vehicle home or to the shop to repair the issue.
Feathering the gas to keep the engine running should be seen as a temporary measure. If you need to do this, there is something wrong with the car and you should have a mechanic diagnose the issue.
