Team O’Neil videos normally herald a number of high-performance rally driving techniques like left foot braking or inducing a scandinavian flick. However, the latest installment from the rally school shows you how to do a limo stop. So what is it all about?
The most basic principle as you may have guessed is learning how to come to a stop in a very smooth and safe way – just as a limo driver would. Long story short, rather than maintaining steady brake pressure until slowing to a stop, it’s much more comfortable to ease off the brake right before you become stationary.
Not only is it a very important skill to learn, but you’ve likely been doing it already – which is good enough for most petrolheads to refer to themselves as rally drivers. But before you get too carried away, we’d be remiss not to mention that Wyatt from Team O’Neil says the limo stop is a very important stepping stone into more advanced rally-driving techniques like trail braking.
Even on the street, Wyatt mentions that this maneuver can be used to see how much grip there is if you need to come to an emergency stop – especially in winter conditions. Rather than being smooth, you can be aggressive on the brakes to see when your wheels begin to lock up or when ABS starts to cut in.
After finding the threshold with an aggressive limo stop, it becomes a useful transition into trail braking; the difference between the two lies with easing off of the brakes once you start to enter a corner. To some it might seem a bit convoluted, but trail braking is one of the most common techniques in racing – even with circuit driving on a hard surface.
Semantics aside, Wyatt raised a great point about how gentle snow driving is on a car and its components. As there is such a lack of friction and sharp direction changes, you could play in the snow all day if you really wanted to. Regardless, it’s great to see how all of these techniques not only make you a better driver, but also a safer driver.