Handbrake Turn
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The handbrake turn (also known as the bootlegger's turn) is a driving technique used to deliberately slide a car sideways, either for the purpose of quickly negotiating a very tight bend, or for turning around well within the vehicle's own
turning diameter The turning diameter of a vehicle is the minimum diameter (or "width") of available space required for that vehicle to make a circular turn (i.e. U-turn). The term thus refers to a theoretical minimal circle in which for example an aeroplane, a ...
.


Technique

The driver starts by using steering input to transfer weight to the outside tires; the handbrake is then used to lock the rear wheels, thus upsetting the adhesion between the tires and the road surface. With practice, the car can be placed accurately by releasing the handbrake and accelerating the vehicle. The technique is used in some forms of
motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...
, for example
rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
,
autotesting Autotesting involves a series of tests, generally around traffic cones, to measure precision driving skill. The tests often include stopping with the front and rear wheels straddling a line, and always end stopping in a garage (usually marked o ...
, drifting and
motorkhana {{Refimprove, date=August 2008 Motorkhana is a low-cost form of motorsport, unique to Australia and New Zealand but similar to autotesting in the UK and Ireland and gymkhana in the US. It involves manoeuvring a car through tight tests as quickly as ...
. Many sports cars, especially UK makes such as MG and Triumph, as late as the early 1970s were offered with a fly-off handbrake option for competition purposes—the button on the end of the lever has to be pressed before the brake will lock on, which is the reverse of the normal arrangement—allowing for faster and more controlled application in a handbrake turn, and less liable to be accidentally locked on while doing such a maneuver. In a
rear-wheel drive Rear-wheel drive (RWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the rear wheels only. Until the late 20th century, rear-wheel drive was the most common configuration for cars. Most rear-wheel ...
manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...
vehicle, it is also necessary to operate the
clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...
to prevent the handbrake from stalling the engine.


Physics involved

In a normal turn, rear wheels follow the front ones because resistance to motion in the forward direction (in which the wheels turn) is significantly less than in the sideways direction. The latter provides the
centripetal force A centripetal force (from Latin ''centrum'', "center" and ''petere'', "to seek") is a force that makes a body follow a curved path. Its direction is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous c ...
that makes the rear end of the car follow the turn. When the driver locks the rear wheels with the handbrake, both directions offer the same resistance, so the rear end tends to keep moving in the existing direction (due to inertia) and thus slides out.


Usage

Handbrake turns are primarily a technique used to negotiate tight turns in
motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...
but can also be used in certain other applications such as stunt or pursuit driving. For
stunt A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or an act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually on television, theaters, or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer generated imagery spec ...
purposes,
parallel parking 250px, Parallel-parked cars in Washington, D.C. 250px, A motorist gets assistance parallel-parking 250px, Parallel parking animation Parallel parking is a method of parking a vehicle parallel to the road, in line with other parked vehicles. ...
can be completed in a single motion using the handbrake. This technique is often demonstrated at car shows, demonstrating the vehicle's agility and the driver's control. In pursuit driving, the technique can be used for turning the car around in the width of two lanes without using a three-point maneuver (see
bootleg turn {{Unreferenced, date=June 2008 A bootleg turn is a driving maneuver intended to reverse the direction of travel of a forward-moving automobile by 180 degrees in a minimum amount of time while staying within the width of a two-lane road. This mane ...
), for example, to bewilder a pursuer. It can also be used to quickly negotiate tight corners. The handbrake turn has colloquially been called the bootlegger's turn in the US as it was reported to be used by bootleggers transporting illegally manufactured alcoholic drinks while escaping from the
IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
. It has been reportedly used by
boy racer Boy racer is a term given to a young person who drives in a fast and aggressive manner; it has become a broader term (often pejorative) for participants in modern custom car culture who tune and modify cars with street racing-style afterma ...
s on public roads as a manoeuvre to show off to their friends.


Usage in drifting and rallying

Whereas pulling the handbrake is the easiest way to start a drift, it is rarely used in circuit racing because it causes significant loss of speed at the exit of the corner. Racers use handbrake turning only to negotiate tight 180-degree bends that would otherwise require a
three-point turn The three-point turn (sometimes called a Y-turn, K-turn, or broken U-turn) is the standard method of turning a vehicle around to face the opposite direction in a limited space, using forward and reverse gears. This is typically done when the ...
. Handbrake turns are commonly used in
rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
to negotiate tight, low-speed corners, and also as a means of performing manoeuvres and stunts.


Dangers

The handbrake turn is not recommended for novice racing drivers, as pulling the brake with too little or too much force will not lock the wheels correctly to allow the vehicle to negotiate the corner correctly. Like other methods of inducing a drift, the handbrake turn does pose a serious risk of the vehicle flipping over, and caution must be taken when performing the maneuver with a vehicle with a high center of gravity (such as an
SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
). The basic danger lies in bad judgment of surroundings, resulting in the sliding vehicle hitting an obstacle (another vehicle, a guardrail or a tree), or bad judgment of speed, resulting in the vehicle driving off the road rather than sliding, or releasing the handbrake when the vehicle is moving sideways so that all tire forces are sideways.


See also

*
Drifting (motorsport) Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip ...
*
Left-foot braking Left-foot braking is the technique of using the left foot to operate the brake pedal in an automobile, leaving the right foot dedicated to the throttle pedal. It contrasts with the practice of using the left foot to operate the clutch pedal, leavi ...
*
Bootleg turn {{Unreferenced, date=June 2008 A bootleg turn is a driving maneuver intended to reverse the direction of travel of a forward-moving automobile by 180 degrees in a minimum amount of time while staying within the width of a two-lane road. This mane ...


References

{{reflist


External links


How to do a handbrake turn

Fifth Gear handbrake turning lesson

Handbrake parking

Handbrake turn practice for autocross/gymkhana
Hazardous motor vehicle activities Driving techniques