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Rear-end rotation caused by applying more throttle than the rear tires can handle, breaking traction at the driven wheels. Most common in rear-wheel-drive cars, it occurs when engine torque exceeds the available grip at the rear contact patches.
Going Faster! (Lopez) describes the mechanism: "With a rear-wheel-drive car, if you put excessive driving force through the rear tires, they will break traction and the car will oversteer. This problem is often compounded by premature acceleration out of a curve, causing the rear to sit and provide grip at first. It feels good, so you accelerate harder" — a feedback loop that ends in a spin. Ben Collins notes in How to Drive that "oversteer is predominantly the preserve of rear-wheel-drive cars, where an excess of power through the rear tires causes them to lose grip. It can occur by virtue of their generally edgier handling characteristics. However, it is also possible to destabilize a front-wheel-drive car." Power oversteer differs from lift-off oversteer in its trigger — throttle application versus throttle release — but the resulting rear-end rotation feels similar and requires opposite corrections (reduce throttle for power oversteer, maintain or add throttle for lift-off).