Nice discussion. I remember the leasons my dad taught me about letting off the gas at the wrong time when I was 13. I grew up in South Dakota and my dad took me out on the frozen river and taught me how to use speed, throttle control, brake control, steering, shifting to a lower or highter gear, clutch control, etc. to navigate around the patchy snow drifts on the river. He would let me weave around the piles of snow on the ice and of course I spun out many times. Soon, I learned to judge my speed, learned how not to lift my foot off the gas peddle abruptly, and conversly not to stomp on the gas pedal which every knows about, not to stomp on the brake, to let the clutch out slowly and deliberately and not abruptly, and to be SMOOTH in everything I changed. As MOTEC and others have stated it is sometimes counter intuative that you need to continue to apply throttle in a skid and not abruptly take your foot off the gas or even worse apply brakes. When you change something abruptly in a car, you had better be pointing it in a straight line (like a dragster) or the car will become unstable and spin off the road/track (like a dragster). The key, besides knowing the cars grip limits, is to be smooth in applying and unapplying throttle, brakes, steering, gear changes, clutch engagements, etc. BE SMOOTH. These lessons helped me be a better go-cart racer, motorcycle racer, fly aircraft, control high horse power cars and drive on slippery roads. Is knowing or gaining these skills going to keep you from crashing? NO!! There are always unexpected things that happen that you can not recover from, but having these skills can definitely give you the knowledge and skills to avoid many circumstances you find yourself getting too close to. It allows you to recognize that you are approaching your limits quicker. I think that is what is mean by "experienced drivers" - recognizing a problem earlier so you have more time to think about what the correct reaction should be.
