Speed Secrets Saturday: When Oversteer is Understeer.

Photo: MarkHales.com

The third in the Speed Secrets Saturday series by Ross Bentley. This week the theme is handling: sometimes it's not the setup, it's you.  
Be sure to check out  Part I: Rain and  Part II: Braking.

The Dreaded Understeer-Oversteer Problem by Ross Bentley

"The car understeers early in the corner, then snaps to oversteer at the exit."

That's a common complaint from track day and race drivers. Most often, the priority becomes fixing the exit oversteer because it's "scarier." But the only car problem is the understeer.

Photo: Andrea Cairone/Axis of Oversteer

See, when the driver experiences understeer, the natural instinct is to turn the wheel more - it's human nature. When steering input increases, the car scrubs off speed until the front tires hook up and gain traction, sending the car immediately towards the inside of the turn... and the car oversteers.

So, the understeer is a car problem, and the oversteer was caused by the driver. Fix the understeer and the oversteer goes away. That's why it's important for the driver to be aware of what he/she is doing with the controls when the handling problem occurs.

Mark Hales

The next time you experience the understeer-oversteer problem (and you will if you drive on a track enough), stop and ask yourself what you're doing with the steering wheel when the understeer begins. If you're like most drivers, at first you won't believe that you're turning the steering wheel too much. But if you really think about it, you may realize you are what's causing the oversteer.

Of course, the best thing you can possibly do is spend time on a skid pad training yourself not to add more steering when your car understeers.
It’s easy to say, and even easier for me to write, “When you experience understeer, reduce your steering angle.” But I know from experience, that it’s not easy to actually straighten the steering when you sense you’re on an ever-increasing radius, no matter how good a driver you are. And that’s why practice time on a skid pad is so valuable (not to mention that it’s an absolute blast!).

Be aware of what you're doing with the controls any time the car is doing something you don't want it to do; you may learn that it's not completely the car's fault.

For more of Ross' writing, along with articles by other famous and not-so-famous contributors, go to www.speedsecretsweekly.com. He can be reached at ross@speedsecretsweekly.com.

Old Timers Oversteering

I know what you were thinking...
No,  this is from the 2012 Eifel Rallye Festival,  more like "I've spun and I can't go straight" .

Speaking of driver's schools...

Our track-tard UK friends over at JustGoFaster.com have just released their latest masterpiece to wide critical acclaim and bimmerforum.com shock.
"A Distinct Lack of Talent" opens with a spectacular JustGoHome moment and just spirals from there. It's great fun, Axis Approved!


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To get serious for a moment, two issues come up with regards to the recent BMW school we attended.
Rather than the traditional hand signals for passing, using turn signals was tried, most hated it. I didn't mind at all mostly because, if done right, one could indicate willingness to be passed (for example) before turns are over without taking a hand off the wheel and almost crashing (don't laugh, I have seen this a number of times!).
I wonder if a lot of the confusion and discomfort was because people were asked to signal the side they wanted to be passed on rather than the side of the track they would stay on during the pass. The natural instinct, I suppose it to signal left, stay left. I noticed that is what they must do over in the UK.

The second issue is spins... spins are good, ideally everyone would experience spins, in fact there SHOULD be spin out exercises at all driver's schools. Most people have never spun and are both terrified to do so and clueless as to what to do if it happens. Once you know what a spin feels like you are much more likely to recognize the impending problem early enough to do something about it.
Sadly most of the tracks we have, especially here in the North East, are super fast and with very little run off. Look at the aerodrome track on the video...huge space and moderate speed: a big autocross. A very good place to get it all wrong and to learn how to keep it shiny!

Junk in the trunk: CG puts some Oversteer back in the Axis

CG demonstrates the entertainment value of having the engine in the wrong place and one rear right Nitto NT-01 with a slow leak...



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How about some lurid oversteer?

We got tons of great video from last Saturday's PDA/NASA day at Pocono. We ran the "Double infield" course for the first time and it was a blast. Super high speed into real freaky turns you need to slow down 50/60 mph for, NICE. Add in bumps and one real good chance to get some air while attempting to turn and it makes for an exciting lap.
More on all that later including our first ever "Track day Clown" nomination. But for now enjoy this clip of me engaging in some lurid, lurid sliding. Now that the car has it's rear sway bar properly welded on it is soooo much more lively and much more fun to drive and I definitively did my part for the A.o.O honors.
On a tech note, I have to say that the work I did on the brakes really paid off, I had no issues what so ever with them other than maybe over braking at times because I was not used to the effectiveness.

click on the window below and smell the Pirellis!


iTunes will download this for your iPod.