If you were to try to spin a car on purpose, you would probably find yourself struggling. You might turn the steering wheel aggressively, trying to throw the car around, but instead of spinning, you'd likely experience only understeer. You could try turning right and then left sharply, but the car still wouldn't spin—it would just understeer. This raises an important question: why is it that when you try to spin on purpose, you fail, but when you're trying to take a corner normally, you spin?

Here's an interesting demonstration of this phenomenon: when attempting to take a corner normally but at maximum speed, the car may suddenly spin. Yet when deliberately trying to spin, it doesn't happen. This paradox reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about car control.

The Three Tools for Rotation on Entry

On corner entry, there are three tools that control how much the car will rotate. It's crucial to understand that rotation isn't controlled by steering alone. The common misconception that causes people to fail when trying to spin is that they attempt to use more steering input. However, if you turn too much, you immediately abuse the front tires and the car simply doesn't respond.

To make the car rotate properly, you need to use all three tools together:

• Steering

• Trail braking

• Engine braking

If you downshift in a rear-wheel drive car, the high RPM will make the car rotate more. In a front-wheel drive car, you get the opposite effect, but in a rear-wheel drive car, downshifting more quickly produces more rotation.

The Magic of Combining the Tools

The key to spinning a car on purpose is using a little bit of steering while combining it with the other two tools. When we say "a little bit of steering," this actually means steering at the optimum slip angle of the front tires. You're not under the limit on steering—you're turning on the limit. Because of the speed involved, you might think you need to turn a lot to reach the limit of the front tires, but this isn't true. A small amount of steering is already enough to reach that optimal slip angle on the front.

What you then do is use trail braking and engine braking to amplify the rotation. If you try using steering alone, it won't be enough. You must combine steering plus trail braking plus engine braking.

Avoiding Overuse of the Tools

However, it's not as simple as just using all three tools maximally. If you use too much trail braking, you'll experience a similar problem to using too much steering—you'll abuse the front tires. If you use the steering perfectly and the engine braking perfectly, but you abuse the ABS or use too much braking, it won't work either.

To get the car to properly rotate, you have to be on the limit of all three tools, not over the limit. Here's a critical principle to remember: oversteer means less steering. In order to achieve oversteer, you actually have to steer less. If you steer just enough, you can get the car to oversteer significantly. But if you steer too much, the car will understeer and simply won't turn at all.

Understanding Car Tendencies and Tool Balance

While we have these three tools available, knowing which ones to use and in what proportion is a complex question. The answer depends significantly on the tendencies of the specific car. All cars have different personalities:

• Some cars have more engine braking, others have less

• Some cars are very responsive (pointy) under trail braking situations

• Some cars are very lazy under trail braking situations

You must understand at each stage of the corner what the car wants to do.

Engine Braking and RPM Behavior

For most rear-wheel drive cars, there's a common pattern: entry on high RPM makes the car rotate more. When you downshift heavily, the car may lose control very early when on high RPM in second gear. This happens because of how engine braking behaves throughout the corner.

The RPMs are highest initially—roughly 25% into the corner. This is where you tend to lose the car because the engine braking is at its peak. Engine braking starts very high and then diminishes as you get deeper into the corner, unless you downshift again. If you downshift again mid-corner, you'll get a new peak of engine braking that will make the car rotate more.

However, ideally you don't want to downshift too much into corners. While some corners require it (especially long corners), generally downshifting into the corner isn't the fastest approach. If you can downshift before you start turning in and achieve high RPM on entry, that's generally faster, especially in iRacing. The speed of your downshifting affects how much the car will want to rotate.

The Progression of Rotation Through the Corner

Here's a practical example of how engine braking affects rotation timing: when you downshift to second gear, you reach peak RPM and the car starts to lose control at that point. If you begin to lose it, you start to overheat the rear tires, creating a snowball effect that leads to a spin.

However, if you try to induce oversteer mid-corner instead, you'll find the car understeers. Even if you add more trail braking and more steering, it won't work. Why? Because by that point in the corner, the engine braking has already decreased. The combination of the three tools—steering, trail braking, and engine braking—fails to produce rotation because the engine braking component is too low.

When you spin early in the corner, it's because the RPMs were high on entry. Using exactly the same steering and trail braking inputs, the higher engine braking on entry causes you to lose the rear. The car keeps sliding and overheating, finishing in a mid-corner spin.

Entry vs. Mid-Corner Behavior

Because engine braking always decreases as RPMs drop, there's a critical pattern to understand: there's always a bigger tendency to lose the car on entry if you downshift very early. It's much easier to lose the car on entry because of the high RPMs and high engine braking—the car tends to oversteer on entry.

As the RPMs go down, you lose that tendency to oversteer and the car becomes progressively more prone to understeer toward mid-corner, toward the maximum rotation point, and toward the minimum speed point.

This means you should approach your steering differently through the corner:

• Be more careful on your initial turn-in, as the car will tend to lose control very easily if you turn in too fast

• Turn in a little more slowly initially

• As the RPMs go down, you're safer to start steering more

The Proportions of the Three Tools

Understanding how much each tool contributes to rotation at different stages of the corner is crucial. Let's examine the proportions from the turning point through the corner:

At Turn-In (25% Into the Corner)

When you start turning in after braking in a straight line, ideally you've already completed your last downshift. At this point:

• RPMs are at their peak (peak engine braking)

• Steering input is small

• Trail braking is still heavy

• Brake pressure is high

• Engine braking is at maximum

If we visualized the contribution of each tool as a pie chart, we'd see that steering contributes relatively little to the rotation. The main sources of rotation come from trail braking and engine braking. The steering is providing only a small portion of the total rotation at this stage.

Deeper Into the Corner

As you progress deeper into the corner, the proportions shift dramatically:

• RPMs are dropping, so engine braking decreases

• Trail braking is also decreasing as lateral grip increases

• Steering contribution increases significantly

At this stage, the pie chart looks completely different. You now have much more steering input, much less engine braking, and still some trail braking. The main source of rotation has shifted to steering, whereas earlier in the corner there was barely any steering and the car was rotating primarily from trail braking and engine braking.

The Progressive Transition

These proportions don't change suddenly—they shift progressively in a gradual transition throughout the corner. Every corner follows this pattern: as soon as you start braking, you have a car that wants to oversteer much more. By the time you reach mid-corner, you have a car that wants to rotate much less.

While this is a general example and it's possible to encounter a car that is more lazy on entry and more responsive mid-corner (though this is rare), the key takeaway is understanding this principle. The goal is to become autonomous and develop the sensitivity to notice these behavioral changes at different stages of the corner, from car to car, and from tool to tool.

Key Principles Summary

The main ideas of this lesson are:

• There are three tools to rotate the car: steering, trail braking, and engine braking

• These tools always work together and cannot be ignored individually

• Ignoring steering means losing control and not knowing how to induce or prevent oversteer or understeer

• Not knowing how to trail brake results in either too much or too little rotation, or breaking too hard into ABS

• Not understanding the rate of your downshifts destroys consistency, as fast downshifts give lots of rotation while slow downshifts can cause understeer

All three tools must work together harmoniously to achieve optimal car control and consistent lap times.