Understeer & Oversteer

[Steve Webb]

Just stumbled across these 2 diagrams, they may be at the simple end of things, but they are a good start when looking into handling.

Understeer (lets face it, this is going to be the most useful one for us.)

http://www.berlinasportivo.com/forumpics/understeer.GIF

And oversteer

http://www.berlinasportivo.com/forumpics/oversteer.GIF

[AlfaJack]

Very useful :)

[tuah]

Very useful. Thanks Steves.

[JBSOUND]

Great quick advise. Tks Steve!!!

[Steve Webb]

Its interesting to look at that first flowchart where it deals with under-steer, especially the part with mid-corner under-steer.
I was always under the impression that to get rid of understeer you needed to soften up the front, but in the chart this is only the case so long as you don't have excessive body roll. With lots of roll (as in the 155) you need to control this first by actually increasing the roll stiffness.
Sort of implies that there is a desired amount of roll, too little and the car under-steers, too much and it under-steers.

[corriedw]

The diagram is great but is for a rear wheel drive car. To keep the car from rolling, in the case of a rear wheel drive, you stiffen the front, but is the opposite for front wheel drive and 4 wheel drive.

To curb understeer you need to move the weight to the front, ie lower front and raise the rear of the car.