Well put, marcush. However, with the current levels of downforce and the grip of modern tyres, I
believe the effect is minimal. As usual, we would LOVE to have some hard numbers, even if tentative.
As you say, with old tyres and, better yet, on unpaved roads, the effect is quite notorious, like WRC proves. I mentioned what I felt in my old cars.
Just in case, for your entertainement, here you have a classic description, that you made me remember (thanks, it was interred deep down my PC! I haven't read it in years and still makes me shiver...
) and that I think is mandatory reading for would-be-drivers.:
Enzo Ferrari on Tazio Nuvolari, long before drifting was re-invented in the "Far East"
"At the first bend, I had the clear sensation that Tazio had taken it badly and that we would end up in the ditch; I felt myself stiffen as I waited for the crunch. Instead, we found ourselves on the next straight with the car in a perfect position.
I looked at him, his rugged face was calm, just as it always was, and certainly not the face of someone who had just escaped a hair-raising spin. I had the same sensation at the second bend. By the fourth or fifth bend I began to understand; in the meantime, I had noticed that through the entire bend Tazio did not lift his foot from the accelerator, and that, in fact, it was flat on the floor.
As bend followed bend, I discovered his secret. Nuvolari entered the bend somewhat earlier than my driver's instinct would have told me to. But he went into the bend in an unusual way: with one movement he aimed the nose of the car at the inside edge, just where the curve itself started.
His foot was flat down, and he had obviously changed down to the right gear before going through this fearsome rigmarole. In this way he put the car into a four-wheel drift, making the most of the thrust of the centrifugal force and keeping it on the road with the traction of the driving wheels.
Throughout the bend the car shaved the inside edge, and when the bend turned into the straight the car was in the normal position for accelerating down it, with no need for any corrections."
Nuvolari è bruno di colore, Nuvolari ha la maschera tagliente, Nuvolari ha la bocca sempre chiusa, di morire non gli importa niente…
Lucio Dalla song on Nuvolari
Lucio Dalla is crazy, IMHO...
Just to remember the master at Donington, 1938 (notice the clear drifting):
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmCJvDUWXaY[/youtube]
Finally, some words about his style (sorry, totally OOT, I was carried away!
):
Nobody else like him join an incredible sensitivity of the car with an inhuman courage
--
Enzo Ferrari --
He was a man that outraged the reality and he did things that were absurds... for youngs of that period, and me among them, Nuvolari represented the courage, an unlimited courage. He was the myth, the unreachable.
--
Michelangelo Antonioni --
Nuvolari is the greatest driver of the past, the present and the future
--
Ferdinand Porsche --
Until in the world it will be spoken about automotive sport, will remember Nuvolari
--
Lord Howe --
Nuvolari, as well as being my greatest opponent, is the best driver in all times. He is not a master but an artist of driving. A master could teach. The art can't be taught.
--
Achille Varzi --
Art can't be taught.... sigh.