Oversteer vs Understeer: Which One Do You Prefer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ferrari_1996
  • 374 comments
  • 33,194 views

Oversteer vs Understeer

  • Oversteer

    Votes: 388 85.3%

  • Understeer

    Votes: 67 14.7%
  • Total voters
    455
Ferrari_1996
It's not that obvious. If you like drifting you would prefer oversteer.
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Just because a car is neutral, does not mean it can't be drifted. Also, a car that under steers can be drifted as well. All you need to do is upset the chassis, and mash the gas.

A car's tendency is not the only way it acts all the time. I've gotten sideways on a public road in my 2001 Honda Accord. Ish happens...
 
iamsupernasty
Just because a car is neutral, does not mean it can't be drifted. Also, a car that under steers can be drifted as well. All you need to do is upset the chassis, and mash the gas.

A car's tendency is not the only way it acts all the time. I've gotten sideways on a public road in my 2001 Honda Accord. Ish happens...
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'Mashing the gas' would only get it sideways if it's a RWD car, would just understeer further if it was a FWD :scared:
 
iamsupernasty
Just because a car is neutral, does not mean it can't be drifted. Also, a car that under steers can be drifted as well. All you need to do is upset the chassis, and mash the gas.
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An understeering car can drift? Cool. What do you mean by upset the chassis? And even if understeering cars can drift, oversteering cars are better for drifting, right? Rally cars normally drift and they are 4WD (or atleast most of them are. Are 4WD cars typically oversteerers, understeerers, or neutral?). I wonder if them being FR will make them better at drifting. It will probably require a lot of countersteering, however.

EDIT: Are there any rally cars that are not 4WD?
 
xCGx-MaRc
'Mashing the gas' would only get it sideways if it's a RWD car, would just understeer further if it was a FWD :scared:
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Thanks for the enlightening info.... If you get a FWD loose and don't hit the gas, you will spin. So either way, the point applies.

Ferrari_1996
An understeering car can drift? Cool. What do you mean by upset the chassis? And even if understeering cars can drift, oversteering cars are better for drifting, right? Rally cars normally drift and they are 4WD (or atleast most of them are. Are 4WD cars typically oversteerers, understeerers, or neutral?). I wonder if them being FR will make them better at drifting. It will probably require a lot of countersteering, however.
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The "Scandinavian flick" (Google is your friend) is an example of a way to upset a chassis. Basically you just wan't to shift the cars weight towards the front so that the car can rotate. You can upset the chassis any number of ways though... Hitting a bump, incorrectly applying brakes, making sharp steering inputs etc... All of these can create an over-steer situation even in a car that likes to push.

Yes a car that oversteers naturally is better for drifting.

4WD cars typically under steer but by using tricks like the "Scandavian Flick" combined with throttle inputs, rally drivers are able to get the car to rotate and produce the necessarily oversteer.

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There are indeed 2WD rally classes. These cars are typically front-wheel-drive, but not exclusively.
 
Ferrari_1996
An understeering car can drift? Cool. What do you mean by upset the chassis? And even if understeering cars can drift, oversteering cars are better for drifting, right? Rally cars normally drift and they are 4WD (or atleast most of them are. Are 4WD cars typically oversteerers, understeerers, or neutral?). I wonder if them being FR will make them better at drifting. It will probably require a lot of countersteering, however.
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Drifting is simply putting a car into a controlled slide. Technically it can be performed by any sort of drive system.
Because its generally easier to get the rear tires of a RWD or AWD car to break free and continue slipping than a FWD car you seldom see FWDs drifting. However because of the loose nature of gravel or dirt in many rally events you will see FWD cars sliding or "drifting" in them.
 
iamsupernasty
Thanks for the enlightening info....



The "Scandinavian flick" (Google is your friend) is an example of a way to upset a chassis. Basically you just wan't to shift the cars weight towards the front so that the car can rotate. You can upset the chassis any number of ways though... Hitting a bump, incorrectly applying brakes, making sharp steering inputs etc... All of these can create an over-steer situation even in a car that likes to push.

Yes a car that oversteers naturally is better for drifting.

4WD cars typically under steer but by using tricks like the "Scandavian Flick" combined with throttle inputs, rally drivers are able to get the car to rotate and produce the necessarily oversteer.

---

There are indeed 2WD rally classes. These cars are typically front-wheel-drive, but not exclusively.
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Only naughty people upset a chassis. You shouldn't however. It might start crying :(.
 
Oversteer setups are generally faster, though often a lot harder to drive/easier to crash. I hate an understeering car though, while oversteer can be fun.
 
Neutral, though some might call my neutral understeery. Everytime i have to apply counter steering is a time i lose speed so not too fond of oversteer. Understeer has it's own drawbacks that have been mentioned here already.
 
Ferrari_1996
Which one do you prefer? I prefer oversteer because I think it's more fun and it makes you countersteer (which is something I like doing)

So which one do you prefer? And Why?

EDIT: Also, what do you think of countersteering? Do you like countersteering?
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Simple:
Oversteer = Fun
Understeer = Surgery

PSN: gearloos
 
I perfer oversteer than understeer, because you always go sideways which is never boring and it can be a great benifical on how to drift with many types of cars and how to handle them in certain conditions which is sweeeettt!

Try getting a 700-1000hp car to lose traction with its rear wheels and use oversteering and countersteer to witness some heavy smoke, that's a challenge. :D :crazy: :sly:
 
Oversteer for me too. With oversteer you can balance it out with a dab of the throttle and opisite lock. It is more likely to help keep momentom up , where as undeersteer you need to slow down untill the grip returns. Understeer is classically a traite of a FWD car , and with FWD there is a limet to the amount of power you csan push through the front wheels.
 
I personally prefer oversteer compared to understeer. Counter-steering is something of an "in the moment necessity." I don't mind it but it's not necessarily the "fast way."
 
All this talk of counter steering... I like the car to rotate, but if you're counter steering, you're going slow. Drifting may win you style points but not the race.
 
tissimo
All this talk of counter steering... I like the car to rotate, but if you're counter steering, you're going slow. Drifting may win you style points but not the race.
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Oh well, it's not like you are going die if you are going to lose.

For me it's

Having Fun and Style > Winning a race and not having fun.
 
DEFINITELY oversteer, since I'm an aggressive racer, and especially with cars that don't spin out too easily. I'd rather risk spinning out in a corner than heading into a corner going straight with the front wheels locked up.
 
Sohvakettu
If your front tires lock up it sounds more like problem with braking than understeer...
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Don't the front tires lock up because ABS is off? And I) agree, seems like a braking problem, nothing to do with understeer (or atleast that's what I think anyway)

Do you prefer understeer or oversteer? Tell me which one you prefer and why. Also, have you voted?
 
If you would discuss, the Enzo isn't known as the car most willing to follow you every move, but it's very stable. So you could add some oversteering settings to it and it would work. With racing tires, you could have very oversteery settings to almost any car as you still have a ridiculous amount of traction. I have an R32 with R2 tires that oversteers to ridiculous lengths on R tires.
When using sports tires, You want a decent turn-in, and be able to corner with the 'smaller' amount of traction. I don't want my car to smoke, I want a more "sharp" steering. So I can't say that oversteer would be to any extreme measures for me.
 
FishyJuice
If you would discuss, the Enzo isn't known as the car most willing to follow you every move, but it's very stable. So you could add some oversteering settings to it and it would work. With racing tires, you could have very oversteery settings to almost any car as you still have a ridiculous amount of traction. I have an R32 with R2 tires that oversteers to ridiculous lengths on R tires.
When using sports tires, You want a decent turn-in, and be able to corner with the 'smaller' amount of traction. I don't want my car to smoke, I want a more "sharp" steering. So I can't say that oversteer would be to any extreme measures for me.
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How Do I get my Enzo to oversteer? It's got racing soft tires on. It's got too much power so it understeers when turning. I has over 800 HP and I think I've done weight reduction on it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Ferrari_1996
How Do I get my Enzo to oversteer? It's got racing soft tires on. It's got too much power so it understeers when turning. I has over 800 HP and I think I've done weight reduction on it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
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It's a case of proper suspension tuning. If you installed the fully adjustable suspension a good place to start is by changing the rear tires 20 toe in value to 0.
 
Ferrari_1996
How Do I get my Enzo to oversteer? It's got racing soft tires on. It's got too much power so it understeers when turning. I has over 800 HP and I think I've done weight reduction on it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
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Since the Enzo is very understeery from the beginning. I tried to buy a new one and drop lots of weight and then add ballast and re-distribute the weight, but having a 50/50 weight on SH tires made it, very, very slidy to drive. Even more difficult to drive. I suggest you try RKM's tune on the Enzo, it isn't exactly in my style. But my Enzo has like a front toe of -0.75-0.80. A rear toe of -0.5-10. And a LSD with 7/23/23. And no spoiler, it's nowhere near perfect, but I think it suits me a lot better than stock with the parts and such installed. You should experiment with the LSD, Suspension, Brake Balance due to the poor brakes on the Enzo. Just experiment. There's a thread on this in the Tuning section.
 
Predictable oversteer is the key really. If you know exactly how much oversteer you'll get from giving it the full beans then that's all good. If it's caused by a lack of balance it's a pain in the proverbial. I'll even stick harder compound tyres on the rear to get FF cars to oversteer slightly on corner entry, normally running Racing Soft up front and Intermediate or Rain tyres on the rear.
 
Ferrari_1996
And that will make it oversteer? Is there anything else I can do?
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No this alone won't make it oversteer you'll need to do more to the suspension settings to get it to oversteer.
The thing is the default settings for the fully adjustable suspension have 0 Camber and 0 toe on the front. The 20 positive toe on the rear helps keep the rear of a car more stable but also adds to understeer. Adding some negative toe to the front will aid in turn in. Applying some Camber to both front and back helps to keep more of the tires contact patch in contact with the road when turning and the vehicles weight shifts, so you keep as much grip as possible enabling harder and or more sustainable cornering without the tires losing traction. There are a variety of things you can do with the ride hight, spring rate, dampers and anti-sway bars as well to aid turn in and cornering. As far as the brakes go they are not bad, the thing to remember is that the car is very fast and will require more distance to achive the desired results. This can be slightly offset by running a higher brake number as long as the tires can maintain traction without locking up.
 
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XDesperado67
As far as the brakes go they are not bad, the thing to remember is that the car is very fast and will require more distance to achive the desired results. This can be slightly offset by running a higher brake number as long as the tires can maintain traction without locking up.
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Much better way to put, I meant as you said that a stronger brake setting would be preferable due to the enormous speed the car possesses.
 

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