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"Speed Kills!" The politically correct solution to all of our highway problems. If everyone would just slow down, things would be just peachy.

Well, maybe. But there's a teensy problem with this simplistic little solution. As a driving society, we're not going to slow down! When 80% of the driving public is pushing seventy five to eighty in that cute little fifty five zone, they may just be telling us something - and maybe its time the politicians started listening.

Speed doesn't necessarily kill. People do it safely all the time. But driving fast without having the skills required to do so? Yup. That'll kill! So what's the "Driverthink" suggestion? If you're going to drive fast, it behooves you to develop the skills to do it safely and if you don't have an understanding of basic car handling concepts, you simply don't have the skills.

Vehicle handling is mostly about curves and turns. How does the vehicle respond when entering a turn at high speed? Let's start with some definitions and examples.

Hard Steering: This is the stuff you do with the steering wheel. The actual wheel input.

Under Steer: You steer into a left curve but the car doesn't steer quite as far as you wanted it to and drifts toward the right of the lane. It's "Pushing". It still wants to go straight and you have to add more input to stay in the lane. This would also be described as "tight handling." Your car is "tight".

Over Steer: Also called "Loose". Same scenario into the turn but this car tends to go further into the turn than you wanted. Also, the rear tires can begin to break loose and start to skid, thus the term "loose."

Neutral: Your car neither over steers or under steers at a given speed. It does exactly what you want it to do when you hard steer. (It may, however, get loose or tight at higher speed.)

Throttle Steer: This is what's killing our kids. When a car enters a hard curve at speed, it will throttle steer. It will turn not only based on steering wheel input, but also from input to the gas pedal (or brake). Throttle Steer is a wonderful thing if you understand it. It's LETHAL if you don't.

Wonderful Thing Throttle Steer: You're boogying down the highway and you start to enter a reasonably tight, left turning curve. You hard steer into it but your car still wants to go straight and starts drifting to the right side of your lane. It's tight. Simply bleed off a little speed. Not a lot - just a touch. Your car will lean slightly forward placing more weight on the steering tires. As they

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