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| Graphic Illustration of Understeer vs. Oversteer Source: Google Images |
As a car enthusiast, I
literally eat, sleep and dream cars, but I always tend to struggle with understanding
the terms: Understeer and Oversteer. Whenever one watches a car related
programme you always tend to hear the motoring terms: Understeer and Oversteer. With this blog, I will attempt to explain: Understeer and Oversteer.
I hope that you enjoy the read!
Top Gears: Richard Hammond explains Understeer and Oversteer
What is Understeer and Oversteer? These are predominantly vehicle
dynamics terms used to describe the sensitivity of a
vehicle to steering. Simply put, oversteer is what occurs when a car steers
more than commanded by the driver. Whereas, understeer occurs when a car steers
less than the amount commanded by the driver. Some motoring journalists
attribute “Understeer” to Front Wheel Drive (FWD) cars, whereas Rear Wheel Drive
(RWD) cars predominantly “Oversteer”, which makes them the ideal car to use for
drifting.
Now that you are aware of what “Understeer”
and “Oversteer” is, I will now go about explaining Oversteer and Understeers, as
well as the causes and methods to correct both Oversteer and Understeer if are
faced with the situation.
Explaining Oversteer
As a driver it’s unlikely that you’ll ever
experience oversteer unless you’re driving/pushing a car over its limits of
grip. According to DrivingFast.net,
You can recognise oversteer if:
·
The rear of the vehicle
becomes unstable and ‘light’ due to lack of grip.
·
The car starts to rotate so
the driver is facing towards the inside of the corner.
There are four major causes of oversteer:
1.
Entering the
corner too fast.
2.
Accelerating into
the corner, too early or too aggressively.
3.
Braking into the
corner or mid corner.
4.
Lifting off the
throttle mid-corner.
Correcting Oversteer.
DrivingFast.net explains how to correct oversteer:
“Whatever
the cause of oversteer it is important to keep the front wheels pointing in the
direction you're hoping to go. If you fail to do this, the most likely result
is a spin. You should apply enough steering lock to point the wheels in the direction
of the slide. Too little and you're likely to spin as the back continues to
come round, too much and the car will rapidly over-correct, often resulting in a spin in the opposite
direction. The skill can only be mastered with plenty of practice and should
become instinct if you're planning to drive fast on a track.”
Explaining Understeer
As stated previously
Understeer will not happen if you aren’t pushing a car to its limit. Understeer
is most likely to result from these situations:
·
Accelerating into a bend
·
Braking into a corner
·
Ploughing into a corner too fast
·
Low traction conditions on the corner such as ice or oil
Active causes of Understeer
·
Cornering speed
·
Throttle
·
Braking
·
Steering inputs
·
Weight transfer
Recommended ways to correct understeer are:
- Be as smooth as you can
- Don't enter corners flat out, and accelerate as you exit
- Don't brake in a corner. The only exception to this is if you are using trail braking...
One can now establish that “Understeer” and
“Oversteer” are will most likely to occur when pushing your car to the limit. In
conlusion, I believe that you should only experience these driving dynamics on
a racetrack, because tracks are there for racing and many tracks are open to
the public. Therefore, I suggest rather push your car on a track/circuit than on the
street because you’d be much safer. I hope that you have enjoyed this new blog!