Very simple car-physics question

First I want to say. Dont be scared of the length of this question. Just take the code and paste it into a
a frame in flash and it´ll start running. Its just there to show you the problem.

I´m trying to make a simple flashgame with cars. I found this code snippet from an earlier post here on Experts-Exchange that works well for driving a movieclip around on the screen. But it lacks skidding when turning the car.

I suck at math, so I´m looking for help with calculating the new x and y values for the car each round.

I think this should be a simple calculation in just one line of code here, but as I said, I´m really lousy at math. Its a few lines of code to read through, but its very straightforward, so I´m sure you will have no problem understand it.

After the code example I show you what I added to make it skid. And it looks a little better, but It´s not the right way to do it.




this.onEnterFrame = function() {
     
      var StageWidth:Number = 600;
      var StageHeight:Number = 600;
     
      // This determines what these variables do
      keyLeft = Key.isDown(Key.LEFT);
      keyRight = Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT);

      //the reason why these two are not capitilized any is because "keyUp" and"keyDown" are      commands in flash

      keyup = Key.isDown(Key.UP);
      keydown = Key.isDown(Key.DOWN);
      // By pushing on certain keys, you get acceleration and decceleration
      if (keyup) {
              this.tspeed += .25;
      }
      if (keydown) {
              this.tspeed -= 1.5;
              if (this.tspeed<-7.5) {
                        this.tspeed = -7.5;
              }
      }
      // Friction from ground; this can be any small number so that the car doesn't keep going
      // if a key isn't pressed
      this.tspeed *= .92;
      // Velocity Change
      idealxvelocity = this.tspeed*Math.cos(this.angle*Math.PI/180);
      idealyvelocity = this.tspeed*Math.sin(this.angle*Math.PI/180);
      // By taking the difference between the current velocity and ideal velocity,
      // you get the actual velocity
      // When you apply the friction, you get the actual velocities.
      this.xvelocity += ((idealxvelocity-this.xvelocity)*this.tfriction);
      this.yvelocity += ((idealyvelocity-this.yvelocity)*this.tfriction);
      // By adding the velocities, you can get the new x and y positions
      this._x += this.xvelocity;
      this._y += this.yvelocity;
      // By pushing the Left and Right keys, the car steers in that direction
      if (keyLeft || keyRight) {
             this.steering += (keyRight-keyLeft);
      } else {
              // When you let go of the Left and Right keys, the car goes back to going straight
              this.steering += ((this.steering<0)-(this.steering>0));
      }
      // You want to make sure that when you steer that it doesn't start turning faster and faster
      if (this.steering<-5) {            
              this.steering = -5;
      }
      if (this.steering>5) {
              this.steering = 5;
      }
      // Now you can make the car turn based on actual speed and turning angle
      actualSpeed = Math.sqrt((this.xvelocity*this.xvelocity)+(this.yvelocity*this.yvelocity));
      this.angle += (( (this.steering*.80)*actualSpeed)*.15);
      trace("steering " + this.steering);
      this._angle = (this.angle+360)%360-180;
     
      // Hit outside
      if (this._x>=StageWidth) {
              trace("Hit Wall");            
      }
     
      if (this._x<0) {
              trace("Hit Wall");      
      }
      //if (this.x<=10) {
              //this.x = 10;
      //}
      if (this._y>=StageHeight) {
              trace("Hit Wall");
      }
     
      if (this._y<0) {
              trace("Hit Wall");
      }
     
      //if (this.y<=-10) {
              //this.y = -10;
      //}
      // You need to update the angles from radians to degrees so that it can turn
      this._rotation = this.angle+90;
      this._x = this.x;
      this._y = this.y;
     
};



this is what I added. I marked the rows I added with a few ***. This makes it skid a little when turning, but not very good.

      if (keyLeft || keyRight) {
             *** if(this.xvelocity > 0) this._x += 0.5; ***
            ***  if(this.xvelocity < 0) this._x -= 0.5; ***
             this.steering += (keyRight-keyLeft);
      } else {
              // When you let go of the Left and Right keys, the car goes back to going straight
              this.steering += ((this.steering<0)-(this.steering>0));
      }

Thanks in advance

/Fredrik