[Lyle]

There's a message in the drag strip incident. Cobras will go sideways pretty easily and fast, but if the driver lifts off the gas at that moment, the rotation will continue. Gordon Levy told me about this at the driving school at PIR. I experienced the phenomenon twice that day. The first time, I was in a hard turn and made a SLIGHT lift before accellerating for the straight. Slight was enough to rotate beyond recovery. Luckily there were no obstacles in the way as I did a 360 spin to a stop. The second time it started to go out, I got on the gas smoothly and the rear end recovered nicely. Good thing - there were obstacles that second time. Weight transfer is the key. The only way to get the rear end to stick again is to get weight on it, which means accelleration. So, if the rear end of your Cobra starts to move out, you have three possibilities: 1) you have room to accellerate until the car straightens out; 2) you have room to spin out without hitting anything; or 3) you don't have room for either. Avoid door number 3. It may be counter-intuitive, but the rule is - if you're getting sideways, stay on the gas.

I'm glad no one got hurt.

Lyle