over- or under-steering? what do you prefer?

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milomak

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I think i prefer under. i think i would rather correct into a corner than out. especially given that even in speeding i like to think i am conservative.
 
Understeer is safer to a degree, if the front wheels start slipping tap the brake to shift the wieght to the front, regain grip and accelerate out. Oversteer is a beast to control if you not ready for it, people tend to over correct by counter steering to much and then walls, trees and stuff get in the way. Some people also slam on the brakes which will give err... interesting results, lifting off the throttle gives you another reaction that will suprise you. In racing school you learn never to put down power exiting a corner until you know you wont have to lift off. Lift off the throttle in a corner in a rear wheel drive on the limit and you'll get an interesting twitch.
 
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I am interested to find out what lifting does in an oversteer situation
 
Makes sense. You are in a corner where the car is already oversteering. Then you lift off, and the steering lock you are in becomes too much for the reduced power at that point.
 
milomak said:
Makes sense. You are in a corner where the car is already oversteering. Then you lift off, and the steering lock you are in becomes too much for the reduced power at that point.
Click to expand...

Yup you go from some grip to lots of grip and tend to get swung around in the opposite direction. Anyway on the newer cars the electronics sort most of it out for you.
 
If you lose it on a bend...

Front-wheel drive: go through the hedge forwards.
Rear-wheel drive: go through the hedge backwards.
 
I like balance with a bit of understeer to keep things predictable.

Ford Focus does this beautifully
Golf V keeps things low and tidy
or
Mazda MX-5 FTW if you like it rear wheel drive.
 
I prefer neither... just drive nice and slowly and the car goes exactly where you point it.

:D
 
go do a advanced driving course... youll soon find out the all work well in each different situations...
 
i prefer rear wheel drive. understeer is boring, oversteer is more fun. skidding is ok if you're anticipating it and you leave yourself enough space to correct it with some margin for safety :)

or just enjoy the music, save petrol and keep chilled :)
 
I would love some oversteering action, with loads of opposite lock, looks FUN. On the track that is, would not want to have that happen on public roads. :)
 
Looking at my rear tyres, and the fact that I've now built up a custom car designed to slide...I'd say...REAR! Oversteer! :D
 
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Lol yeah, niether is most preferable in normal driving conditions but it is fun to get my car's arse out on purpose.
 
Oversteer. Not snap oversteer though, that's bit tricky to correct.

I was traveling on the highway once doing just over 120. There was a bakkie in front of me in the far right lane who wouldn't move over even if there were no cars in front of him. I eventually decided to overtake on the left and just as I got into the middle lane I saw a big box in the road. Yanked the steering to the left to avoid it and got massive over steer and probably a bit of under steer as well, basically a 4 wheel slide with the car very much sideways. Was able to correct it and I was on my way.

Now In that situation I really don't know what I would have preferred, probably a little bit of both.
 
For a road understeer, for a track oversteer, I've gone to a wet track to play around (my car can oversteer if it's wet enough), lot's of fun but not when there's other traffic around.
 
I prefer oversteer! Understeer is safer, but no fun at all, especially at a race track, id rather oversteer and spin out, losing all my momentum, than understeer off the track, crashing into the wall. On the faster corners understeer is is a biatch to correct: if you brake, you crash, if you lift off, you crash. So what you do, is commit to the corner, grind your teeth and hope that somehow the car stays on the blackstuff :D
 
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