BigSteve

I may be wrong but wouldn't a car with not so stick tires create understeer. As I understand it understeer is when you are trying to turn more but because of either excess speed or tires not sticky enough to perform the maneuver your car wants to plow forward even though the steering wheel/tires are turned in a direction other than straight forward. Am I wrong?

djct_watt

Yes and no. . . it depends on the balance of the car, the transfer of weight, and the suspension geometry. . . even tire pressure can effect under/oversteer.

Believe me, it IS possible to get a FWD to oversteer, but it's harder as it will be MUCH harder to conrol than a RWD car.

The most common cause of oversteer is doing a sharp S turn (turning one direction and switching directions suddenly). Your spring compress in one direction, and then the car changes direction faster than your suspension can rebound. When the weight transfers to the tires from the delayed rebound, you will oversteer.

Another test is to deflate your front tires to 30psi and inflate your rear tires to 42psi. . . and I highly recommend you do this "off-road," as you will probably lose control.

solorider

Snap oversteer happens in a stock tC when you suddenly find out mid corner that your going too fast, your high in the revs, and suddenly you've got a lot of engine braking happening up front. Your tC will go tail out so fast it'll make your head spin, and if you don't know what your doing your car will spin too. That my friend is oversteer in a big way. I read about the tC's tendancy for this on these forums and went to my local empty parking lot to find out for myself.

I have parking lot flogged every car I've ever owned within the first couple of weeks of ownership so I would know what to expect if push ever came to shove. I also find a parking lot at first snow(not an issue now that I'm in Phoenix) and do the same.

I rarely push a car on the road and never exceed the speed limit by more that 10(usually 5), but should I find myself on a highway where the speed limit is 55, 60, 65, but corner advisory speeds are 15, 25, 35 you bet I'm going to run my car at it's limits, when I get to that point I find it's nice to know what kinds of things to expect.

djct_watt

snap oversteer. . . ah forgot about that. If you take racing classes, they may/may not attribute that to driver error, and it can be compensated for by being easy on throttle movements. . . but yeah, I can definitely see that happening on the tC, with the long wheelbase it has (a shortfall of long wheelbase with FWD).

Batjew

nope, no powersliding for me.

djct_watt

I know I'd be knit picking on terminology, but how do you powerslide a FWD car?

rhythmnsmoke

In stock form, I was very hesitant to push the TC in the corners. The body roll is a bit to control. But just with the additions of my H-techs. I have seen an increase in handling ability by 10 fold. Can't wait to combat the body roll some more, when I get new sways put on. I love taking the corners hard now.

lo_bux_racer

Try 'snap oversteer' in a mid-engine car like the AW11 MR2 or the NSX and it will push the front, not the rear. Lifting in a turn is a recipe for disaster in anything you drive. You've already got more weight on the front than you want. It may even be sliding. You need to reduce the weight transfer to restore traction, so the only possible solution is to apply throttle and shift the weight to the rear. Unless the rear is also sliding, then you genuinely have overcooked the turn and all you can do is hope touring the tulips won't be too bad.

Oh, the other thing you can do is stick your knee on the ground to change the balance of traction, but that only works on bikes...