I do not understand people who do not understand the OP. While you are turning the wheel you are selecting an appropriate amount of throttle so the balance of understeer and oversteer is appropriate for the corner/car/driving style, right? Ant you cannot do that while in the middle of a gear change? In a manual you make that gear change before the corner, in an auto the car makes the gear change during the corner (most of the time).I still don't understand the original post.
'How do I round a corner in a car with an automatic transmission?'
I just... leave the gear selector alone and turn the steering wheel slightly and straighten up again when I've completed the turn. It's called 'driving'.
How do you go round a corner in an automatic car?
- Thread starter Samson
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schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
And…?
Thorgalaeg
Deity
It is bad to go neutral into a corner. You can end in a ditch.
BTW @Samson, I think the problem is your car. I drive a PHEV in my job which obviously is all automatic and it changes gears and goes from electric to gasoline and vice versa seamlessly. In fact in every moment you forget there is a gearbox in the car, corners included.
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
and I still don’t understand. Why is the car in neutral? The car should be in drive the whole time 
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
I don’t drive stick so I’m not sure about the actual sensational difference in control, but you have quite a bit of control in an automatic. It’s just the control comes purely from how and when you apply gas and brakes. I know quite well how my car under/oversteers into turns and I account for that through the speed into the turn and how I approach the braking point. In the times I have ridden in a manual I have noticed no appreciable difference in quality of turning between manual and automatic.
Once again, if you are thinking at all about gears, you are seriously overthinking your approach to an automatic gearbox. It’s like switching to an electric range from gas and asking about where the ignition sparker is, and how you get the element to heat up without having the ability to control the ignition.
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Okay, I re-read the OP and I think my confusion is caused by my car having a different automatic transmission design than your car?
I have an e-CVT in my Toyota; it's a belt-less design that uses a planetary gear and two electric motors (one has a double function as a generator also, because it's a hybrid). As @Thorgalaeg says, it feels like driving a car without a transmission; like a bumper car in an amusement park or a fully electric car. You control the car with the pedals and your right foot. So, I always have power by just pressing the accelerator, or decrease speed in a turn with the brake pedal; no need to ever touch the gear lever. It doesn't have '1-2-3' gears to choose; just D and B for engine braking (I never use that one).
It sounds like your transmission has fixed gears and it down- or upshifts between them - and you can feel that as the driver. You don't have that with an e-CVT, so that's why your experience is 'new' to me. And confusing.
To try and explain what I mean, take the case of accelerating from stationary on a straight at full throttle. At the start the car selects 1st gear, you feel the acceleration and see the revs go up. When the revs get to say 6k at 30 mph the car changes gear, you feel the acceleration disappear for a second or so, the revs drop and then when the car has finished the gear change into second you feel the acceleration return and the revs start going up again. For that second or so between the acceleration in first and the acceleration in second the car is in neutral. Does that make sense?and I still don’t understand. Why is the car in neutral? The car should be in drive the whole time
Now say you are approaching a corner with an apex speed of 20 mph. You move your foot from the throttle to the brake, and slow down to 20 mph. The car is happy at 20 mph in second with no demand on more power from the throttle so it remains in second gear while under braking. Once you get to the corner and as you start turning in you apply throttle, and the car decides at 20 mph and some demand for power it should be in 1st, and so changes down. For the second or so from when it disengages second until it has engaged first the car is in neutral, and there is no way to alter the weight balance of the car.
Now you remind me, decades ago my parents had a volvo 340 CVT. Yeah, that was completely smooth and did not have the described loss of power. My current car is not like that.
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
You shouldn’t be experiencing significant time between gear shifts, so if the interval is significant enough to pose a serious problem, that may be a mechanical problem and I would have it looked at. Otherwise this is not really a problem I have ever experienced in 15 years of driving automatics (incl. professionally)? Like as long as your speed into the turn is good (and your foot is off the accelerator), and the amount of pressure you’re placing on the accelerator is even and appropriate, you shouldn’t be experiencing any wild gear shifts mid-turn, just an easy, nearly imperceptible upshifting as the car evenly accelerates back up to the speed you want.
It sounds like you are coasting in neutral between gears for an extended period of time, because it won't go into gear again until you are out of the turn? And in that time window, you can't accelerate and it might actually unintentionally slow the car, because the drive shaft isn't transmitting power from the engine to the wheels, because you are in neutral? Hence the 'loss of power'.
I have driven the cheapest hire cars in the US a few times and I am fairly sure I remember a similar period of neutral during gear changes. It does sound like it could be the car, but just rubbish rather than broken.
Yeah, pretty much. But the "coasting in neutral" is the same every time it changes gear, but it only really matters when it does it while I am going round a corner.
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
Could also be a problem of applying too much pressure too quickly on the accelerator coming out of braking, shooting the revs up and causing the gearbox to freak out
You would not want to go through the corner in second, as you would not get enough power to keep the back end planted as you drive out.
Well, if the transmission has always behaved like this, it may be a 'feature' of the design. If it hasn't always behaved like that, it's likely a malfunction, wear or low transmission/power steering fluids? But I'm just guessing; I have limited mechanical knowledge of how to fix cars.
I have only just started driving this car, since my last car was hit. I think it has been like this for at least 8 years.Well, if the transmission has always behaved like this, it may be a 'feature' of the design. If it hasn't always behaved like that, it's likely a malfunction, wear or low transmission/power steering fluids? But I'm just guessing; I have limited mechanical knowledge of how to fix cars.
schlaufuchs
Break My Heart
I mean I don’t know how else to say it. If you are thinking about what gear you are in you are overthinking automatic. I have at least 10k, probably closer to 15k hours of experience driving automatics. I’ve driven big dump trucks and tiny coupes, I’ve driven uphill on narrow loose dirt roads, I’ve driven downhill on narrow mountain switchbacks, I’ve driven long cross-country roadtrips, I’ve driven on the left and the right. I have never once in my life had to think about what specific gear I’m in entering or coming out of a turn.
Like I said, with automatics it’s better to think in terms of speed rather than in terms of gear or revs. But there’s no helping someone who doesn’t want to be helped, I suppose.
When driving an automatic, you should be almost unaware of its changes.. certainly they should not have a neutral bit between each change!
Automatics are all about never having to think about gears. They are not designed to create the same sensations as a stick shift. If you want any of the "race car" feel in an automatic, you will likely have to spend $100,000 to get it.
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