Hi all just after your opinions on what happened to my car today.

I have a Mitsubishi Lancer GSR AWD Turbo 1.8L (I am an Aussie :P ). It was quite wet this morning whilst i was driving and i had a bit of a "moment" whilst going around a round about. I came into the corner in third on a trailing throttle, touched the brake before the corner to knock off what little speed I had (below 50km/h). After I passed the apex of the turn the rear of my car began to kick out and i tried to correct with steering adjustment but this had little effect, and before the lag dissapeared and power reapplied i had spun 270 onto some grass. It was quite a gentle spin but none the less i wasnt happy about it. My car is dead stock with new OE shocks and new front tyres.

My front tyres are quite soft in comparison to my rear tyres and have a slightly more aggresive tread pattern.

If i had driven through this corner on power would this have happened???

I would appreciate any thoughts as i dont want this to happen again, I could have quite easily of hit someone or something which wouldnt be good

Regards
Mimmo

 

Sounds like Trailing Throttle Oversteer (TTO) , the weight transfer from lifting off the throttle brought about the oversteer condition.... probably wouldnt off been a problem in the dry . just have to take a different line into the corner in the wet.

Older porsche's used to like to swap ends like that.

Kyle M.

 

in those situations, how much throttle you give is just as important as how you countersteer, if not more. my guess is that you went into the turn while you braked also..this will give you a significant amount of oversteer especially in a wet condition.

 

Is this TTO applicable mainly to AWD vehicles?? Because i have taken this same corner in a RWD car at a similar speed in the wet and have gone straight around without any trouble whatsoever.

If i had of gunned it out of the corner in the RWD car i would prolly have oversteered a fair bit. In the Lancer should i expect power oversteer??

What could i do in terms of suspension set up to counteract this sort of car behaviour? Lowering the suspension is an idea as well as camber and castor adjustments with the relevant kits. What do you think a change to a softer compound rear tyre would do? I think it would make the car less taily in the wet as this has never happened in the dry.

Thanks for your comments

Mimmo

 

I am not exactly sure what your steering and throttle inputs were during the turn... Now, correct me if I am wrong, I am not sure if I am reading your post the right way... So you braked before the turn, started turning while applying some gas... As you hit apex, you realized you were accelerating too quickly and let off momentarily? If that is what you did, you did an LTO (lift-throttle oversteer) which happens mostly to cars with more aggressive suspension design... Since you said your car is equipped with OE shocks and springs, perhaps it's the mismatch front/rear tires that caused it?

You might've been able to get away with it had you been smooth with your throttle input. That is the best I can analyze the case without more information.

 

Yeah I breaked before the turn to knock some speed, I was in third about 2000 rpm. I turned left and then right to go around the "round about" then still with no accelerator, as the corner got sharper the rear started to give and I corrected with the steering and began to apply the throttle. Due to lag and inappropriate gear nothing happened and i had spun about 270, I kept the spin going by dropping into second and applying power, by this time the rear of the car was on grass, it kicked around back onto tarmac and i was on my way.

My suspension is not radical by any stretch of the imagination, probably one of the few standard ride hight GSR's around.

Would a soft front tyre and a hard rear tyre cause a significant upset in rear tyre grip? they are fairly new tyres that came with the car, but i am thinking to change them if that is the problem.

cheers for the help peoples


Mimmo

 

softer fronts would definitely upset rear grip. Guys doing drifts would set up their tyres and suspension that way. I used to get alot of lift off over on my ITR on the track too which was quite fun for a FWD. I lived in melbourne for a while and drove the GSR quite a bit. I remember the GSR handles more like a FWD than a RWD, which means u are prone to understeer alot and the occasional lift off oversteer. (IMHO) Those days the AWD was fantastic we used to get on tram tracks to get the thing to wheelspin hahah. But having said that, get equal tires and perhaps upgrade your suspension. U also should quickly downshift next time.

 

Before I changed my tyres the rears were on the front and the old rear tyres were bald. This made the car a pig to drive in the wet and dry and would understeer really badly. After changing the tyres around and getting new fronts, the car no longer understeers, but oversteer a fair amount. I am thinking to change those rear tyres soonish, but i think I would benefit from some advanced driver training.

Would motorkhana stlye events help me in this aspect, or should i look more to track days to improve my driving skills??

cheers all

Mimmo

 

Yeah it's starting to sound like it's a problem caused by mismatched front/rear tires compounded by damped pavement and a chicane type turn... I've done that before too, actually! I purchased a set of P700's from tirerack but due to a suspension issue I didn't want my rear tires mounted yet so I only did the front. I was a bit curious what it might do to handling so I took an onramp a bit quicker than I should've (it was a bit wet too) and let me tell ya, I was in for a hell of a challenge! It was REALLY difficult to regain control even though I was already expecting the rear end to come loose.

Change your tires as soon as you can.

 

Cheers mate, I am gonna book it in next week

thanks for all your advice everyone i really appreciate it.

regards
mimmo