Can someone please explain these to me???

 

Understeer is the tendancy of the car to continue going straight when you want to turn. Generally the front end does not allow the car to rotate properly. This is common in front wheel drive cars.

Oversteer is where the rear end turns too much and actually swings out. This is more typical in rear wheel drives or in World Rally Cars

AWD cars are nice because they can compensate for oversteer just by mashing the gas.

 

So how does one utilise these methods in controlling the car in a front wheel drive car?

 

in a FWD car the only one you should be concerned with is understeer. You would not want to try and MAKE your car do it, well, because it's a bad thing. If you understood TearItUpSports correctly, then you know that understeer is simply "missing the turn". I'll break it down in an example for everyone who wants to know.

Let's say you are driving in the right hand lane on a four lane road at 60mph. now here comes a right turn... a little less than a 90deg turn.... you weren't paying any attention because you were changing out your new eminem cd with your new korn cd, and so you try and turn at 60mph.. you even hit the brakes, but because your tires are pointing into the turn before you pressed the brake, the speed of your car is too great for your tires to gain any traction, your car does not make the turn like it should, instead you are now in the far left lane (hopefully you keep it on the road) and you barely made the turn. (So simple terms, you went wide) I hope that helps.

To effectivly not understeer and to be able to take a turn at such a speed, one should brake before the turn to transfer weight to the front wheels (where traction matters on FWD cars).

So again... dont try and understeer, as you will loose more speed in the end, and possibly end up off the course.

 

Thanks. This is what I'm looking for.

So the only way you can "oversteer" in a FWD car is a handbrake turn???

 

lol yes and i have a couple stories about oversteering in my lancer...

im in south dakota and as you can imagine the winters here are nice and cold, so the snow stays on the ground for a few days. well anyway, when ever i see an oppertunity to handbrake (or e-brake as i call it) i take it and slide around like a WRC champ...lol a little dream of mine..

this one time (no snow, it was like a couple weeks ago) i was on this dirt road with two of my friends in my lancer and my friend riding shotgun says "hey does you e-brake work?" so i yanked it while turning right and i drifted pretty good until i bottomed out on the drop-off that i didnt see and almost ripped my OZ body kit off... wasn't funnt at the time but it is now.. lol

 

BTW, im jealous of your car. i see that it's a 1.5L engine, what kind of power does it put out?

 

Y'know, it's funny. It comes stock as 105bhp, but certainly doesn't feel like it. Especially in the lower mid-range... Why would you be jealous of mine? You'rs is a 2L, and a OZ Rally. Way more powerful than mine. And mine does look very stock...

How reliable is the e-brake? would it be damaged with some "turns"?

 

No, handbraking isn't the only way to oversteer a FWD; you can do it with yer ordinary brakes as well. As you start to rotate into a turn, give a quick jab to your brake pedal with your left foot (so your right foot is ready to add quick gas to get you out of your oversteer when you feel it is time; or heal/toe but harder to give enough of a jab to the brake). The reason this works is that quick jab to the brakes transfers a large amount of your vehicles weight out of the rear end and into the front end, which effectively makes your rear tires lose traction and if doing this while turning, the rear of your car will then swing around . This is ESPECIALLY easy to do in the rain or on gravel.

 

ha just did oversteer today...the format i used...yank the e-break..while turningright on a 90' turn...and i forgot what else i did...i think all the foot peddling just come natural...haha it was fun but kinda freaked me out..my friend was in my car..and she was like... hey dat was fun!!!

 

why would u want to understeer or oversteer?

 

Well, you actually WOULDN'T ever want to understeer; it can greatly increase the time it takes to get around a corner. However, oversteer can be very useful in rally-style racing (not much else, though); when your back-end starts to slide towards the outside, that movement rotates your car quickly around the corner, though if you are inexperienced with oversteer, it can easily be overdone in which case you turn further than intended and can wind up going off the inside of the track or just spinning out (more commonly). But for the MOST part, if you are oversteering purposely outside of rally racing, it's usually just for show and actually decreases your speed around the corner. It's quicker to simply take the correct line around the corner and keep all 4 tires in traction.

 

i think oversteer/understeer is something dat looks cool....and maybe its fun to do...but be careful tho....

oh and i found some defenition of under/over steer on the internet

Oversteer is a term used to describe the sliding of the rear of the car. This can be caused by a number of things. It's generally seen while cornering or forcing the car round a tight turn while using up all the tyre grip on the rear. Using too much power out of corners and lifting off the power in predominantly mid engined cars while in a corner are usual causes. Other causes can be be carrying too much braking into a corner (trailbraking) causing the rear to loose grip and the front to gain grip. This coupled with the lateral force on the car will push the car into oversteer.

Recovery- To recover from oversteer apply opposite lock, steering into the slide to prevent the rear of the car rotating past the balance point of the car.Adding too much power will make oversteer worse so you need to be very careful with the throttle (on a rear wheel drive car) while oversteering.
To add an extra element to the recovery, the steering must be returned from the opposite lock fractionally before the slide finishes so as to avoid the "tank slapping" so commonly seen.

Understeer is used to describethe front wheels of the car sliding. The rear tyres have too much grip so thefront looses grip. Generally caused by turning into a corner too fast whether in the dry or wet. Slippery surfaces like oil and water can cause understeer as you enter a corner.
The more steering you add while understeering will make it worse.

Recovery- The contact patch of the tyre needs to be rotating for the tyre to grip and the wheel rotating as much to the front as possible. If you have full lock then you need to unwind some steering and reduce your speed a little to regain the tyres grip and continue around the corner.
The natural feeling is to add more steering. The correct procedure takes some time to achieve. Practice is the key.

 

Yes, I would agree that oversteer can look VERY good if done well, but understeer? That doesn't really look like anything, just your car rapidly plowing towards the outside of the corner