suppose a rear wheel drive car (2WD) is spinning to the right
you mean the tail end is coming around to the right - ie the car is rotating CCW as seen from above?
so we do a counter-steer, but suppose this is not enough to stop the car from spinning.
ok, so the tails coming around, my Z does it all the time. you counter steer (hard right turn - try to straighten it out). And lift - of course. you don't mention ABS or active traciton control, so i'll leave those out of the equation.
in that situation, what is the effect of hitting the pedal to the metal? would that make the car spin even worse?
if you nail it, you'll add some additional thrust to the spinning motion. The idea is to slow down the tire until the horizontal force drops below the mass supported by the tire times the coefficient of dynamic friction for that tire compund vs the road surface and current conditions (dry, wet, snow, ice, dust, marbles, etc).
When F > M * Ks you break loose.
When F< M * Kd, you hook up again.
in that situation, would hitting the brake (slowly perhaps) helps the driver taking back control of the car?
Depends on whether you're trying to recover (drive out of it), or just regain full control by whatever means.
when recovering, without abs or traction control, only lightly or quick pumps would help. the idea is to reduce the difference in speed between the tire and road as fast as possible. if the tire has no traction,and you hit the breaks, the tire slows down more, compared to the road skidding by, than it would if left free to try to roll with it and catch up. with light braking, you increase the rolling resistance of the wheels, which slows you faster, reducing the force on the tire from your speed. With pumping, you momentarily skid to slow dramatically, this is the idea behind ABS. The momentum of the car, the turning angle, and the thrust from gas and brakes all sum to a shear force at the contact patch between rubber and road. then you use coefficients of static and dynamic friction to determine when you break loose and hook up again.
But rolling reduces rolling resistance. So locking them up would tend to move you from a spin to a slide, but may regain control faster. The downside is you can still control 2 wheels in a spin, but in a slide, you're just along for the ride - and have to hope you don't hit anything before you slide to a stop. As you can see, there's a difference between spin recovery, and simply regaining control when you lose traction. In spin recovery,you drive out of it.
I don't have a car nor a skidpad or a wide field to test it myself lel
I've been a hot rodder for 38 years, and I took three years of physics in college. During 1st year physics lectures, i would spend my time figuring out the physics and chemistry behind building race engines.
i have a 71 malibu convetible with a 688 HP 489 CID big block chevy 454. No turbo, no nitrous, no blower - runs on pump gas.
and a 1999 Z28 camaro
and a 1971 GMC 1500 stepside 1/4 mile dragster narrowed and tubbed with a 511HP 350 small block chevy motor. No turbo, no nitrous, no blower - runs on pump gas.
and a 1986 Porshe 944
i've slid all the way across an icy bridge on the DC beltway in the Maibu from one end of the bridge to the other. VERY SCARY! 20-30 seconds of uncontrolled sliding.
I slid sideways across a field at 70+ MPH in the Z, avoiding a deer. left grass imprints in the clearcoat, the grass was slamming up against the car so hard!
The Z has no weight in the back end. The gas tank hangs behind the rear axle. If you don't keep a full tank of gas in it, it'll light them up at the slightest provocation. Its actually hard to take off from a light without lighting them up. and heaven forbid you ever pegged it once they broke loose - with posi, it would never hook up, just whip around.
The truck and Malibu are even more insane. I bought the Porche as a "commuter car".
just let go of the gas
its called "lifting" - as in lift your foot off the gas.
The behavior of the car in Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed ™ is kinda against the tips in number (2)
its a game.
What is the true behavior of a car in such situation in real life?
if your speed is fast enough, the front tires break loose, resulting in understeer, and you tend to go straight instead of turning, and hit a wall usually.
if the back tires break loose, you get oversteer, and the back end comes around. If you then peg it, the car will whip around faster. If you lift, the car will slow - eventually to the point that the rear end hooks up and stops coming around on you. But lifting also means you're slower through the turn. Sounds like NFS decided that being able to power through oversteer like a front wheel drive car was more fun than realistic spin physics for a real wheel drive car. and therein lies the difference between arcade and hard core simulation games.
Links of interest:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-of-the-most-hardcore-racing-simulators-you-can-play-on-pc-right-now/
I have F1 2010 - its pretty decent physics.
http://www.gamesradar.com/why-racing-genre-needs-be-more-hardcore/