i'm not sure if i'm just imagining things. i was experimenting, still trying to familiarize my car and refining my driving skills. i was taking this corner a lil too fast, felt a little understreer, i let go of the gas, the more i understeered. same corner, same speed, understeered, accelerate a lil more and my surprise, it took that corner faster and eliminated the understeer. is it just me or the car

 

What year / model Evo?

 

03 evo8

 

letting off of the gas will reduce the understeer as the weight is transferred to the front of the car.

 

Letting off the gas will INCREASE understeer. Understeer is when the front tires get all mashed in while you're turning, cuz you have all the weight up front. So if you gas the car, you'll throw the weight to the back and now you'll have all 4 tires with more ground contact to pull you out.

 

Learnt somethingthere

 

Thoe99 you are so wrong it hurts. Understeer is when the front tires get all mashedi n while your turning because you ahve all the weight up front- wrong, understeer is the tendency for the car to want to go straight relative to where the wheels are being turned. Also when you gas the car the weight is transfered to the rear of the car, and traction is taken away from the front. The more weight over either end of the car the more grip that end of the car will make. The only time letting off the gas will increase understeer is when you are coming out of a corner and the front wheels do not have enough grip accelerate the car and turn it. When dealing with tire dynamics with racing instructors and what not we talk about friction circles, which is dealing with the fact that our tires can only handle a certain amount of cornering and acceleration/braking forces at a given time. If you are turning and using the lateral grip of the tire, you cannot use as much of the grip for accellerating if you were going straight.

Hope this helped....

 

How am I wrong? I just explained the feeling of understeer to make it relate easier, so yes, the front tires get all mashed in when you're understeering. Understeer DOES happen around a turn cuz your weight distribution is upfront. Since our cars are weight distributed at 60/40 with the bias upfront, mashing the gas will throw the weight to the back, but not significantly enough as braking/hard turning around a corner will do to the front.

You also mentioned:
The only time letting off the gas will increase understeer is when you are coming out of a corner and the front wheels do not have enough grip accelerate the car and turn it.

So are you saying it is not called understeer when you plow into a corner way too fast, perhaps letting off the gas or braking, and can't make the turn?

 

from http://www.johnnyoconnell.com/tips3.html

 

Thoe99 please refrain from giving driving tips until you get the basics. It pains me to know that you're giving out info like this.

 

All I'm pointing out is one example of understeering. Sure yours are correct too, but if you plow into a corner, while turning, you're gonna break traction sometimes, your tires won't be gripping anything cuz only your front tires are really touching the ground and you'll just be grinding straight ahead, which is also understeering.

 

Brake then gas, feather the the throttle then once you target the apex power tru.. I find that this works for me, but with the evo stock suspension you will still have understeer I finally found this out the last track event I did.

Make sure you practice in a closed environment.. Dont try to copy initial D and understeer to a guard rail..

 

Thoe again your wrong. Understeer does not happen around a turn because your weight distribution is up front. Understeer happens because the front tires are being asked to provide more grip than they can. Our car's weight bias has NOTHING to do with what mashing the gas does, If you brake hard in a top fuel dragster the weight still gets transferred to the front even though there weight bias im sure is something like 15/85.

No I am not saying it is not called understeer when your car goes straight while entering a corner, I am pretty sure I defined understeer as the car's tendency to want to go straight relative to the direction you are turning. If you are having trouble making a corner, and find yourself plowing in a straight line the problem is that you are either A. Carrying too much speed, or B. Breaking too hard while turning. Btw I was not saying understeer only happens during corner exit, understeer can happen in any part of a corner, just I find that personally most of the understeer problems I have seen exhibited by my evo tend to be from mid-corner out, I think that most of the turn-in understeer in our cars can be attributed to driving them too hard. Also try to not use terms like "all mashed in", or if you could explain what exactly that means, or possibly its relevance to understeer?

Scorke

p.s.- Understeer can only happen in corners

 

Wow. Just wow. There are books on this subject. Books with words. Left to right, top to bottom, turn page. Learn.

 

In SushiSamurai's case, he stated clearly, that letting off the gas was increasing his understeer, which most likely means the corner he was taking was a wide arching turn, which also resembles more of a road racing turn. He came into the long turn with too much heat, too fast. Autocross and Road Racing turns (in his case) differentiate here. In road racing, where the track is much more open, you want optimum tire contact at all times to keep grip, rather than lose the grip when you let off the gas and lose your car balance. Haven't you heard the instructors keep drilling it in your head when you were a newbie to keep on the gas around those wide arching turns? If you let off the gas, you wipe out.