Scandinavian flick

The Scandinavian flick, Finnish flick, Manji drifting, or pendulum turn is a technique used in ice racing and rallying. Approaching along the inside of an upcoming turn, the driver steers sharply towards the outside of the turn, then lifts off the throttle and lightly applies the brakes. This causes weight transfer that rotates the car toward the outside of the turn. Then, steering into the turn and releasing the brake pedal while applying full throttle will cause the car to rotate into the corner. Towards corner exit, the driver might have to countersteer to control the oversteer, but when properly executed this technique neatly lines the car up for the exit while maintaining momentum.

A 2007 research paper initiates a mathematical analysis of this technique.

This technique is used to help the driver get around corners that have an increasing radius, but it is also used as a show off as the result of the flick involves the car oversteering heavily.

While the actual originator is unknown, the technique was named after the Scandinavian rally drivers of the 1960s who widely used it. Front-wheel-drive cars of the 1950-60s, such as the Mini and the Saab 90-series, turned-in more readily if the driver steered into the corner and tapped the brake pedal. This caused weight transfer to the front, reducing grip at the rear until it started to slide. The "flick" part comes from the technique of "flicking" the wheel in a direction opposite of the turn to build up angular momentum.

Scandinavian rally drivers were, and still are, predominantly the best in Europe for driving in ice and snow conditions, due to their inclement weather in winter months. Because they drove on ice and snow regularly, they were the first drivers to develop techniques to drive at speed in these slippery conditions. (They also pioneered using the snowbanks on corner exit to straighten out the car).

Since the concept was understood and developed, it has also found its way into drifting and tarmac driving events. It has even gone as far as Australia, where it has been used to induce oversteer in V8 Supercars. The Japanese name of this technique, Manji drift, is named after a Japanese meaning of swastika for the likeness of drift lines.

Every time a vehicle turns, the vehicle resists the change of direction due to inertia. This resistance results in a phenomenon known as understeer, which a driver experiences as the front of the vehicle running wide towards the outside of the turn. This is due to reduced grip between the front (steering) wheels and the road surface. This is particularly noticeable in Front Wheel Drive vehicle, as the drive to the wheels for a given throttle input overcomes the traction of the tire to the road surface (more power to the driven wheels creates more loss of traction, hence powerful Front Wheel Drive vehicles suffer with understeer). This is partially neutralized by the friction between the tires and the road, so the vehicle rather tilts than slides, but ultimately the front wheels will break traction in a corner. In some rear wheel driven vehicles, the suspension geometry is set up to create "push on" understeer, as this is easier to deal with for the driver than un-predictable and harder to address oversteer). As you abruptly flick the steering wheel in the opposite direction, the inertia of the vehicle that has been trying to slide in the opposite way is added to the force applied by the engine and the friction of the front wheels, thus exceeding the force necessary to break traction between the tires and the tarmac. Since most cars have their engines in the front, the load on the rear tires is less, so they break traction first, effectively causing the rear to slide out. Suddenly lifting the throttle causes additional weight transfer to the front, making the load on the rear wheels even less.

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Wikipedia