"John Ings" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:30:21 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

That's a different kind of oversteer. Porsche 356s, VW bugs, early
Corvairs,
and swing-axle Spitfires all did about the same thing, for the same
reason.

With stock suspension, all of them tucked their rear wheels under in a
turn
when you got above a certain threshhold of cornering speed. The outside
wheel would climb up on the sidewall and you'd go into drastic oversteer,
usually spinning out.

If you were lucky. I never raced, but for some years I was the guy in
white coveralls hiding behind a haybale on the corner with a fire
extinguisher ready to hand.

One Volkswagen I saw flip in a hairpin turn went completely over after
jacking its left rear wheel. There wasn't a mark on it save for the
right side fenders, which as near as we could figure was the first
thing to hit the ground.

Feeling the rear end jack up on you, in a swing-axle car, is one of the most
sickening feelings I can recall driving a car, short of staring at a car you
know you're going to hit and seeing everything go into slow-motion. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress