oversteer is fun!

[chakra71]

tonight while driving in the rain i had some unintentional fun. Was leaving a restaraunt with my girl and went to take a left hand turn to get onto the interstate. Nothing special about the turn, flat road 90 degree turn into a single lane entrance with concrete curb on both sides. I entered the turn with a little more speed than i should have and i knew it right away. I was ready for the back end to come around and sure enough it broke free very gently and predictably. I turned with it and caught it perfectly. I was all smiles, even if the woman was gripping the handle on the door hard enough to rip it off.

A friend was following behind us and she said that i looked like a pro taking that turn.

Anyone else had experience with oversteer? hopefully it was as easy for you as it was for me. This was the first time i've ever experienced it with a front wheel drive car. Probably had alot to do with my recent tire rotation and having the more worn stock tires in the back. Oversteer usually scares me a bit since i nearly totalled a brand new chevy S-10 the 3rd day i had it a few years ago. (fishtaled, overcorrected, fishtaled, tree, damn)

[Suk02Si]

haha, a couple friends and I go tray sliding every now and then. It's a lot of fun and when you do it long enough you feel as if it's normal, very controlled chaos:D

[SpeedRacer]

yea tray sliding is fun but i think i will stay away from intentionally spinning my car out considering i spun out into a mountain and all.

[golferjn]

sounded like fun

[2K2SilverSi]

I like power oversteering my dads s2000. Even with the bad ass tires the s2000 has it can still break those things out and rotate the rear. :D

[IceD out N CALI]

sounds like it was fun but i'll stay away from doing any of that-dont want any mishaps

[Finprof]

Back when I was a kid I had a Porsche 911S. You want oversteer - that car had oversteer anytime you want and plenty of times that you didn't. It was vicious. I have a Boxster now and it is not hard to hang the tail out but much more controllable when the tail is hanging out. Not too hard even on dry pavement.

[Mechanic]

Originally posted by Finprof
Back when I was a kid I had a Porsche 911S. You want oversteer - that car had oversteer anytime you want and plenty of times that you didn't. It was vicious. . . .

Finprof: You beat me to it. I, too, am a "recovering" Porsche owner ('58 Speedster, '88 911 Club Sport, '94 RS America). While Porsche would like prospective owners to think that oversteer is a thing of the past, anyone who's owned any of the rear-engined cars knows there's only so much engineering you can do to cope with a 400lbs engine hanging out two feet behind the rear axle. The word you used to describe drop-throttle oversteer -- "vicious" -- is perfect and has to be experienced to be believed.

[hacim]

I was crusing down this road that has alot of twisties in it and I came thru an S turn in 2nd at 50 mph and then threw it into third and kicked the ass way out there. I was very impressed on how easy it was to control in this car. Lots of fun thats for sure, just be safe about it.

[chunky]

Originally posted by Mechanic


Finprof: You beat me to it. I, too, am a "recovering" Porsche owner ('58 Speedster, '88 911 Club Sport, '94 RS America). While Porsche would like prospective owners to think that oversteer is a thing of the past, anyone who's owned any of the rear-engined cars knows there's only so much engineering you can do to cope with a 400lbs engine hanging out two feet behind the rear axle. The word you used to describe drop-throttle oversteer -- "vicious" -- is perfect and has to be experienced to be believed.

ahh yes, extra weight outside the wheelbase = high polar moment of inertia = the back end whips around harder than a bullwhip.

my experience with oversteer was a little off-throttle oversteer that was TOTALLY un intentional and was quite scary in fact. It was COLD and RAINY and to top it off, I was coming around an exit ramp that makes a 270 degree turn. I was about midway through the turn when a friend of mine was like "c'mon, lift off the throttle and lets see if she'll come around." I lifted off thinking that I wasn't going fast enough for anything to happen (about 30mph) but sure enough, the back end came around. I counter-steered, but not nearly enough, and the back end just kept coming and coming till I was sideways, and then completely reversed, in absolute slow motion. I stomped on the brakes and eased backwards onto the sloped concrete curb. Thankfully there was LOTs of run-off room.

since that day I have a new respect for the lift-throttle oversteer in the wet.

[ep pilot]

Just yesterday, I entered my favorite freeway on ramp with a vengeance, basically nobody was before me nor behind, so I took advantage while I was driving in the car solo to boot. I gradually entered the ramp decelerating from speed. I calculated the amount of brake pressure I would need to slightly lock the inside right rear wheel (I.e. left foot brake) this if executed properly wheel induce the inside wheel to drag thus causing the car to drift its hindquarters. Miraculously I executed the desired maneuver in my Ep flawlessly. I was impressed with the Ep's ability to hunker down and take the turn in full stride even when slightly provoked.


-Ryan

[cbecker333]

Its crazy, I had almost the same experience as those above. I wasn't even thinking about oversteer until I got understeer and just let go of the gas. When I did, the car was totally manageable. Preparing for the oversteer is essential to taking any turn fast. It makes it easy.

A) enter turn at a reasonable speed B) turn hard with a bit of throttle and keep adding throttle until it pushes the tires (understeer) C) let go of the throttle and almost pre-emptively counter steer when that ass kicks out. Its awesome, and easy to do in this car. Do it only where you have PLENTY of room for error - like the guy in the post above.

People will call me crayzee for saying this..

I've spent 2+ years racing cars in video games that are increasingly physically accurate. This does not offer a realistic experience, rather it helps me to better understand the physics of driving....Just my .02

[Mechanic]

I think the reason that we're getting oversteer in wet conditions is because our OEM tires are compounded for low-rolling resistence and high-mileage. In other words, they are hard as rock. While a front-wheel drive car, w/a 62% front-to-rear weight bias, should normally understeer in the wet, once a stock Si rotates into a corner and the weight transfers to the outside nose wheel, the rear Michelins can't maintain enough lateral grip to keep the back end from coming around in the wet.

Although I'm no expert here, I can tell you from the experience running a Bilstein Cup car that adding sticky tires, shorter, stiffer springs, anti-roll bars, etc., can, if done properly, mitigate both understeer and drop-throttle oversteer -- i.e., move the latter trait into a higher speed range -- but the basic physics never changes: eventually that puppy's coming around if you lift off the gas mid-corner.

[chakra71]

As long as the oversteer is as controlable as it was the other night i don't mind it. infact it excites me to get some real suspension mods for when the new auto-x track opens down here. Now i see why the Honda team is doing so well in BTCC races and it's only their first year. I just love this little car. :p

[02SiHB]

Explain the concept again, someone? Please? haha, are you just making the rear end of the car whip out (as you would if you punched the gas in a tught turn in a RWD car?) We had an engine packed full of torque in our T-bird and going through any turn with a led foot could make you slide around turns easily and everyone that saw me do this on turns with wide births was very impressed.. I never thought about seriousmanuvering in my ep.. I'm very interested now... I've read this thread a million times and i don't quite catch the priniciple of it...

Also, anyone know where I could view a video of a front wheel drive car doing this?