Light braking through the first part of the corner should bring the vehicle back under control. What can you do with your tyres? Just because your fastest friend likes a loose setup where the car rotates and oversteers early in the corners doesnt mean thats the right or fastest setup for you. So many corners are flat or very very near flat. 2023 MH Sub I, LLC. . Uneven wear. Source: Oversteer and Understeer corrections courtesy of Roger Kraus Racing. As such, weather and track conditions, as well as varying driving styles and abilities will also play a role. Then interpret yourtyre temperatures. Additionally, its important to choose tires that are suited to your vehicle and driving needs. Running multiple air pressures can provide many benefits - bigger footprint in the field . [] to track down the root cause of the problem before you begin to fix poor steering performance. Personally, oversteer is the safer option given that you have more control of the cars slide. A slight compromise to the contact patch is almost always better than a car that handles like a dump truck! To fix the problem, consider the following suspension modifications: Improved driving skills can also resolve the problem. See my post above. The stock tire pressures are a compromise between ride, grip, and tire wear. All-wheel drive is a type of vehicle propulsion that rotates all four wheels with the engines power. What's the future of the internal-combustion engine? For GT4 cars, tyre pressures between 26.5 and 27.0 PSI are optimal while racing in dry conditions. Now what? The decision to go up in pressure or down is more difficult, and probably something worthy of experimentation. Increasing tire pressure increases response but reduces ultimate grip. In attempt to lessen oversteer, Knox lowered the rear tire pressure by an additional 5 psi, while leaving the front tires alone. All Rights Reserved. They will also have a smaller contact patch leading to lower levels of grip and traction, resulting in understeer and reduced steering control. That left pressures at 23 psi in front, and 16 psi in the rear. You could also increase tire pressure at the rear to be (slightly) more than at the front (since 0.7.0 slick tyres optimum pressure range now 1-2 psi higher btw. This can result in reduced control when cornering and cause a car to over or understeer. Article seems simple and useful for us common folk. Front-wheel drive is a type of vehicle propulsion that only rotates the front wheels with the engines power. With understeer, the car doesnt turn as much as a driver expects. Setup Guide for Beginners - ACC Wiki (Unofficial) As you play with pressures and balance, be sure to use as much objective data in your decision-making as possible. The racecar had been well balanced at the previous track. permutive.addon("web", { page: {"user":{"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"city":null,"region":null,"state":null,"countryName":null,"zipcode":null,"postalCode":null,"stateCode":null,"countryCode":null,"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 15_5 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) GSA/219.0.457350353 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1"},"title":"Here's how to adjust your tire pressure for winter driving","description":"Tire pressure can make a huge difference in winter driving, so don't neglect it. One final piece of advice when it comes to understeer and oversteer. He starts with the factory-recommended tire pressure33 psi in front, 30 psi in backand then drops the tire pressure in 5 psi increments. What was surprising was that they werent. Too stiff makes the car twitchy and hop over bumps but too soft makes the car bottom out and reduces responsiveness. What is Understeer and How Can it Be Corrected? Driver 61 I seem to be suffering from inverse memory syndrome, possibly as a side effect of cranial-rectal inversion. Rather than exacerbating the problem with overly aggressive driving, try the old slow in, fast out approach if your car understeers and use gradual and smooth inputs with your hands and feet if your car tends to oversteer. Or if you have bone-stock car and shock or alignment changes arent the answer. Tire Pressures - Tuning Car Balance - The ConeCoach Learn how your comment data is processed. Make your adjustment to the rear tires. 1988 Honda CR125R Is a Classic Bantamweight Warrior. OK, so weve decided to change tire pressure to cure an oversteer/understeer problem. Once you've installed a set of winter tires, you still need to set the correct tire pressure for winter driving, as this video from the Team O'Neil rally school explains. The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo. But air pressure changes only work by compromising the contact patch, which is a Bad Thing (TM). High tire pressure on the front would make it more prone to sudden loss of grip (understeer) and for most people, likely sliding off an on ramp (etc). -Lower rolling resistance this thing rolllllls more than it did with 32psi all around. Youre driving your favourite car. If youve ever felt understeer like this then you will know, it can be extremely frustrating. If youve found yourself in an understeer situation its easy to panic, adjust your inputs too drastically, and find yourself in a ditch or in the back of a Prius. Would someone please explain to me the reason this is true: Because the lower pressure 'end' has no sidewall strength (due to low pressures), and hence moves around a lot, rolls up, and generally has little grip. Increase front camberthe angle between the vertical axis of the wheels and the vertical axis of the vehicle. Reduce front ride height. In this blog post, well explore how tires affect understeer and provide some helpful tips on maintaining optimal tire performance for better handling on the road. One caveat to the above recommendation for reducing mid-corner understeer. Hmm ok I was playing with this today upon discovering that I couldn't actually stop my GTT from oversteering. Lowering front and rear tire pressure by 5 psi didn't make a dramatic difference, and neither did lowering pressure by an additional 5 psifor 10 psi total. Should we not separately define sliding and gripping oversteer/understeer? I usually go with 26psi. Worn tires can also add instability to the car, making it more difficult to drive safely. new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], Again same as #1 we are trying to get more flex in the rear of the kart. If you want more understeer, then you want the front to lose grip before the rear, which means reducing pressure in the front. Your email address will not be published. The front of your car starts to push out. As an engineer the first thought is that the front axle is too stiff so we should be looking at softening it off. If youre still experiencing understeer, it may be worth having your vehicle checked by a professional mechanic. Reducing understeer? | 2015+ S550 Mustang Forum (GT, EcoBoost, GT350 Gradually increasing the tyre pressures, double checking the temperatures and then going again. Steer into the slide, keeping your front wheels faced in the direction of travel you wish to go. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. In particular, your tires have a significant impact on handling as they provide traction and grip for steering. When you break loose, oversteer is occurring. Car is fully stock, from tire size to roof, and recommended cold tire pressue is 32psi, all around. Understeer and Oversteer - How to Remove - Suspension Secrets Confusing, I know, but if you keep good notes itll always be easy to revert to your last best setup if the car starts to push even more mid-corner. In addition to optimal tire pressures, every tire has an optimal tire temperature. Reduce front shock compression and increase rear shock compression. So for track applications, look at your MAX tire pressure on the tire itself and make sure to back another 7-8 PSI down from that as your MAX tire pressure. This thread was therefore really starting to confuse me, but you have set me straight. Some drivers like a bit of oversteer or looseness in the chassis. 3. In my limited experience, Westhill FO8 is the hardest to setup. Install shorter front tires and taller rear tires. Since you have already changed the geometry with lowering, you just have to experiment with the pressures. The car we run has a front anti-roll bar (sway bar) so that might have been the logical thing to soften off and try. To make things. TO REDUCE OVERSTEER or INCREASE UNDERSTEER: Front tires: - Decrease tire pressure in 2.5psi increments - Decrease Section Width - Install higher Aspect Ratio tires - Increase front tread depth Rear Tires: - Increase tire pressure in 2.5psi increments - Increase section width - Reduce aspect ratio - Decrease rear tread depth Front Wheels: Finally, vehicle weight distribution is a key factor in the handling of a car and can also lead to understeer. The more you turn in the wider you go. What I found interesting is higher tire pressure actually increases grip, while lower tire pressure reduces grip, as long as you're within a reasonable range (30 psi to mid 40's psi). Here are a few things that can cause understeer in your car. A poor wheel alignment can also contribute to understeer. First off, dont panic. Before we did though we looked again at the tyre pressures. Here's how to adjust your tire pressure for winter driving reducing understeer on the A6 - Audizine If the car is understeering, it means you are lacking grip at the front, so the last thing you want to do is change front tire pressure. in which case you might need to reduce the front tire pressure. Understeer Help :: Assetto Corsa Competizione General Discussions Understeer/Oversteer | Hyundai Tiburon Forums Understeer is great in a road car, preferable even, but not what youre after in a racecar. And remember, both understeer and oversteer indicate a lack of grip at one end of the car or the other, so keep very close tabs of your tire temperatures and tire pressures to ensure youre maximizing mechanical grip. '; This is called understeer. In attempt to lessen oversteer, Knox lowered the rear tire pressure by an additional 5 psi, while leaving the front tires alone. Do you find yourself struggling to keep your car under control when cornering? This isnt something to be ashamed of and wont result in your Man Card being revoked, so be honest with yourself and your comfort level with oversteer when setting up your car. Unless you find a way to cure your understeer it is not going to happen. UUC swaybars set to full stiffI think this is because the difference from stock in thickness of the front bar is much greater than the difference in the rear. By regularly checking tire pressures, inspecting tread depth, and replacing tires as needed, you can reduce the risk of understeer and improve your overall driving experience. During my time as a banger racer, we used to reduce pressure in tyres to force the car to behave in different ways, dependent on the track we were on. So, let's go through your examples: I don't know anything about setups (which is, why I'm very happy that people are sharing. Its push in racing lingo. While lower pressures can mean better grip because of a larger contact patch in some situations, it does not apply for fast cornering and generally results in understeer. So thats probably the best place to start. Bad tire alignment can decrease your MPG, make wheels work against each other, and wear out tires by causing bad tread wear patterns. This will help to ensure that your vehicle is safe to drive and all of its components are functioning as they should. Understeer is when you turn the steering wheel too sharply, and, due to conditions or too much speed, the car continues forward in a straight line. Just remember that youre giving up grip every time you move away from the sweet spot we found earlier. Over/Understeer and Tire Pressure | BimmerFest BMW Forum The first is to modify the suspension tuning, and the second is to hone your driving skills. Wider Tires in Front to reduce understeer? - BMW M5 Forum and M6 Forums Remove the rear torsion bar and side bar if installed. I dont trust my wife, not because of her inexperience as a driver but, with THAT car. Or, simply: Understeer occurs when a car turns less than the amount commanded by the driver. Additionally, it may be wise to upgrade to performance tires with a wider contact patch and higher quality tire compound to improve the grip of your tires with the road. Russin is co-founder and president of Active Lifestyle Vehicle of the Year, an annual competition. So, let's say you add sways because you want the car to handle flatter, then if the car is pushing, you can stiffen the back/soften the front until the desired balance is achieved. So once youve found the perfect contact patch, dont mess with it! But the former has less max grip so is easier to slide, which makes it "sliding oversteery". my car just ended on a flat land on my right. If your car has a fairly stiff setup and thus doesnt have much body roll, then the suggestions above should work well, even though they seem counterintuitive. Worse, you are giving away some of the easiest lap time. Anyways, earlier E46s like 99-00 323/328 have a factory recommended tire pressure (up to 4 people) of 29 PSI front and 33 PSI rear, but newer E46s (01+ 325/330) have a higher recommended pressure like 32 and 35 (I could be wrong on these figures) for front and rear respectively. Your tires have very specific breaking points. It also has the habit of breaking things on your car and knocking your ego down a few pegs as you plow through the corner and out over a very steep cliff.