Correcting understeer?

axemansean · Mar 20, 2005

Today was the second autox of the 2005 season and I ran into a lot of issues with understeer. Due to a large turnout they only did 3 runs, my first two I was all over the place and was fighting to keep the car under control. The first two runs I had 42 psi all around, the last I upped it to 44 psi and it helped a little bit but the car was still a demon to drive. Ended up dead last in class, some 7 seconds behind the winner. My personal thought is that I have reached the limit of my Walmart BF Goodrich tires, pretty useless rubber when you compare them to DOT racing tires that some of the other guys in class had.

Is there a temporary fix to my understeer issues, I am afraid to run higher than 44 psi as my tires are rated to 45 psi. I am still debating whether to sell my car for something that is lighter and handles better. (A 4 door Accord sedan is not a good autox car compared to a Mini, a Lancer OZ, a 90 Civic and a Scirocco.) I'd like to get a older Civic myself, hence purchasing tires right now would be a fruitless venture.

Any help/suggestions will be appreciated.

maranelloman · Mar 20, 2005

IMO, you are going in the wrong direction WRT tire pressures. FWD cars make the front tires do all the work: steer, brake, & accelerate. They can only do one or two at a time, and neither well.

Try this: run a wider tire up front, take out some tire pressure up front, brake more before turning in, and start coming on the power immediately after turning in as you straighten the wheel, to pull the car out of the corner.

pistole · Mar 20, 2005

maranelloman is correct about tyre pressures. Your increasing front
pressures will not help correct your 'problem' (its not really a
problem , just a characteristic of FWD cars) , it actually makes it
worse .. ie , more skittish front end , less grip , more understeer.

You'll need to learn :-

1. racing lines. Read up on this , early / late apex ...

2. braking and how this effects weight distribution. You'll notice on
a FWD that when you brake entering the corner , your tail gets
light as the weight shift to the front , you need to learn to exploit
that to get a tighter turn in.

3. not to go in too hot. slow in , fast out is very important with
FWD since going in too fast is very very difficult to correct with
a FWD. Its not like RWD , you can't power drift the car out of
the corner.

4. Difficult to learn , but try whether you can master left foot
braking. LFT affects weight transfer and allows you to 'play' with
the oversteer/understeer attitude of a FWD car in the midst of a
corner (yes , you can brake in a corner , there's no law that says
that you can't , and you can also brake and steer at the same
time , the old advice of not braking mid corner is from the days
of crap tyres. Now , you can modulate braking , steering and
throttle to get the car to go where you want it to go).

5. Quality of tyres. This is very important. cannot be overstated.
If you're running below average tyres , don't even hope of getting
a good result. Try wider tyres (or wider track as maranelloman
said) , or less pressure , paired with GOOD tyres. If turn in is
really a problem , you can also try putting your scrappier tyres
at the back , you'll get a livelier rear end that'll help.

.

I am not familiar with what is an AutoX at your place....
Is it like a tight carpark event ?

If it is , a 4 door accord is NOT the car with which to do it with.

pistole · Mar 21, 2005

this fellow explains it better than me :-

http://modernracer.com/tips/frontwheeldriveoversteer.html

http://modernracer.com/tips/leftfootbraking.html

Cheers.

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