Oversteer vs Understeer: Which One Do You Prefer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ferrari_1996
  • 374 comments
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Oversteer vs Understeer

  • Oversteer

    Votes: 388 85.3%

  • Understeer

    Votes: 67 14.7%
  • Total voters
    455
Actually I was more or less replying to Crazed_Coupe, and the thread's question in general. When I'm on PS3 I tend not to quote much as it eats my limited reply space, sorry.

And the thing with understeer is that once it starts, the front tires are simply sliding along instead of really rolling, so they aren't able to turn the car. Reducing the steering angle brings them back to where they can do so again. You can't just wait like you sometimes can with the rears, since the fronts don't change rotational speed with the engine. Quite often when I'm stuck in a long frustrating front skid around a corner, as I gradually back off to where they start to grip the car will in fact begin turning sharper despite less steering input.

Many times a quick flick back to center and then trying to turn again is enough to recover from a front end slide, maybe simultaneously briefly letting up on the gas to get some more weight over the fronts. If they're sliding, I find shifting weight alone just makes them slide more.
 
EliteDreamer
Alright. Thanks anyways. :)
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**** explaining it have you never done it?

Explainations are there to be felt.

I guess there's always someone who likes boring ****, even if it is just to appear unique.
 
What do you mean? I've drifted before. I'm not to fond of sliding nor oversteering. If one of my cars oversteers, I get rid of it if I can't fix it. I despise it. I was just wondering what makes it fun.
 
EliteDreamer
What do you mean? I've drifted before. I'm not to fond of sliding nor oversteering. If one of my cars oversteers, I get rid of it if I can't fix it. I despise it. I was just wondering what makes it fun.
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You just simple don't like oversteer is what it sounds like, which is perfectly fine but I think most people would enjoy a bit more oversteer than understeer because the rear end comes out with loads of tire smoke and it doesn't seem to slow your down as much like I mentioned earlier, as with the boring understeer which makes your car feel like the Titanic on wheels and the only effective way to reduce understeer to go through a corner more quickly which works every time is to simply slow down and maintain an effective steering angle which isn't as fun and seems to slow you down a lot more than oversteer.

I also think that because drifting has become such a craze it gives you a sense of "oh hey i'm drifting!" which is more exciting than "oh hey i'm slowing down to reduce this terrible understeer" IMO.
 
EliteDreamer
I was just wondering what makes it (oversteering) fun.
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pushing the car & yourself to the edge... With understeer you only option when entering a corner too fast is; slow down... With oversteer, if you enter too fast, kick the back end out and throttle hard, still keeping competitive & fast
 
Crazed_Coupe
Oversteer is fun, understeer is not fun.

What didn't you understand in my post? :odd:
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I misread it, sorry, I get it now

^ if you kick the backend out in a real race, you are done, as with understeer, it sets you up for dicing, dicing is good in a full car field but in a small field, it's a quick way to get your spot back

The only things oversteer has going for it, is it's fun, and you don't lose as much momentum
 
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Nothing competitive about oversteer as you can't put the power properly down on corner exit and corner exit is the most important part of corner. :)
 
I prefer neither for racing, because if you have any understeer or oversteer you will loose ;-)

To have a laugh, then oversteer all the way, and I don't mind counter steering, it's like a swimmer not liking water! If I can though, I like to drift with all four wheels pointing the same way and use throttle control to tame the slide. Thats fun.
 
Sohvakettu
Nothing competitive about oversteer as you can't put the power properly down on corner exit and corner exit is the most important part of corner. :)
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Exactly.
This man knows what he's saying.
Where did you see an oversteering race car (no, not a drfter)?
Almost every race car has LSD, suspension, aerodynamics set to eliminate oversteer and to produce understeer.

But hey, this shows that 87% of the GT5 community have no racing experience (or they're just voting as a matter of their personal preference).
 
I don't know if this is the right room to post this if not sorry I'm new to these forums and gt5. I'm trying to figure out how to set my gear ratios for small tracks and larger tracks and when moving the final gear left or right what is actually going on with that process any help would be greatly appreciated,oh and one more thing how to not have so much torque when exiting corners.
 
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599GT
Exactly.
This man knows what he's saying.
Where did you see an oversteering race car (no, not a drfter)?
Almost every race car has LSD, suspension, aerodynamics set to eliminate oversteer and to produce understeer.

But hey, this shows that 87% of the GT5 community have no racing experience (or they're just voting as a matter of their personal preference).
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Depending on the situation they"ll be set for balance actually, nice try.

A perfectly taken corner would take advantage of the fact a tyres co-effecient of friction is at maximum between 0-10% slip. And the only slip in the right direction (aiding you to take the corner) is oversteer.

You will reguarly see oversteer in F1 and that's certainly not the best place for it.

Oversteer is certainly the lesser of the two situations in terms of loss of tine and so highly relevant to racing.

The odd slide, power over, scando flick, braking tailout action is present in most motor racing but on a much finer scale of small adjustments than hanging out on the end of your steering lock.
 
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599GT
Exactly.
This man knows what he's saying.
Where did you see an oversteering race car (no, not a drfter)?
Almost every race car has LSD, suspension, aerodynamics set to eliminate oversteer and to produce understeer.

But hey, this shows that 87% of the GT5 community have no racing experience (or they're just voting as a matter of their personal preference).
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I'm pretty sure that most manufacturers who produce and tune race cars don't aim for understeer like you said, rather striking a perfect balance between the two to make the car handle "perfectly" throughout a turn. It also seems like your forgetting that race car driver don't sit behind the wheel of the race car and put the pedal to the floor, most of those cars take a steady foot and a driver that knows how to handle the car. For instance the Corvette LM race car is bound to have loads of oversteer in the hands on most GT5 players but in real life the profession driver obviously knows the car from head to toe and knows exactly how to handle it.

I'd also like to know where you got your percentage from. :lol:
 
Bobalob
A perfectly taken corner would take advantage of the fact a tyres co-effecient of friction is at maximum between 0-10% slip. And the only slip in the right direction (aiding you to take the corner) is oversteer.
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In Speed Secrets the optimal slip is claimed to be 6-12% but that book is aged and tire manufacturers aren't keen on spreading their trade secrets anyway. Driving within the optimal slip area (% and angle) isn't to be mixed with over or underseer though. It is related to the elastic properties of the rubber and the actual slip isn't really observable as actual drifting of the car in any manner (car should still be balanced with no counter steering involved when cornering).
 
Sohvakettu
In Speed Secrets the optimal slip is claimed to be 6-12% but that book is aged and tire manufacturers aren't keen on spreading their trade secrets anyway. Driving within the optimal slip area (% and angle) isn't to be mixed with over or underseer though. It is related to the elastic properties of the rubber and the actual slip isn't really observable as actual drifting of the car in any manner (car should still be balanced with no counter steering involved when cornering).
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Yep. steering with the throttle, there is actual slip taking place and by very definition it's oversteer (rear slip angles greater than front) this is however very marginal.
 
The amount of slip also depends on the tire wall size for instance
a f1 car has a large radial tyre which allows a lot of flex in the tyre wall this means that you can run stiffer suspension settings as the tyre will help to reduce the slip it will also act as part of suspension. however the tyre modelling doesn't help things as I doubt it takes things like this into consideration.
 
Wow, a lot of varying opinoins here. Let me weigh in.

Actually, Race car drivers prefer thier cars to be as neutral as possible and never want extremes of either understeer or oversteer. And yes most prefer a slight amount of understeer at the limit. Not because it's faster but because it's safer and easier to manage. And the key word here is slight. Very rarely do you see race cars step out into oversteer more than just a little bit on corner exit. Even in F1, if you watch, once in a while, most of the time approaching corners or in the middle of corners you'll see that little whisp of smoke come first off the inside front wheel. That slight understeer going into and through the middle of the corner gives them a small safety net and then they can control the cars attitude on the way out with the throttle. An F1 driver would almost certainly never want a rear wheel to lock up entering a corner because they would spin almost instantly.

After that, many other things need to be taken into account.
1. Sprint race or endurance race
2. Driving style
3. Tire wear, this might kinda be related to #1.
4. Drivetrain layout
5. Power (like comparing a miata to a Viper)
And that's just a few of the quicky's I can think of off the top of my head.

Now this talk of slip angles. This is not talking about understeer or oversteer unless the slip angles are different front to rear.

A very slight and controlled 4 wheel drift is actually the fastest way around a corner and this means there is an equal and slight slip angle to all 4 wheels and is not understeer or oversteer.

Oversteer is slightly faster than understeer if your talking about lap times to a point. Excessive amounts will not be any faster and will be slower than just slight understeer and a lot less controllable.

A neutral car that you can control with the steering and throttle will always be the fastest "PERIOD"

Oversteer is more fun (if your not spinning out all the time) and thus the popularity of drifting. Also note that what from what I can see most GT5 drifters are using DS3's. Most people which don't have the ability to change from 900 degree rotation on there wheels, prefer not to drift with them and also seem to prefer slight understeer.
 
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After purchasing recently a 900 degrees steering wheel (upgrading over my old 200 degrees one) I find myself preferring some understeer.
Wheels with a lower total steering angle and DS3 gamepads have untoggable steering aids that make oversteer recovery much easier than it would seem.
 
SHIRAKAWA Akira
After purchasing recently a 900 degrees steering wheel (upgrading over my old 200 degrees one) I find myself preferring some understeer.
Wheels with a lower total steering angle and DS3 gamepads have untoggable steering aids that make oversteer recovery much easier than it would seem.
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This. I can't even begin to try to do the drift trials with my DFGT. A tiny bit of understeer is the easiest, most efficient setup for me or else I'll spin every other corner, especially online.
 
BOSS Mustang
After that, many other things need to be taken into account.
1. Sprint race or endurance race
2. Driving style
3. Tire wear, this might kinda be related to #1.
4. Drivetrain layout
5. Power (like comparing a miata to a Viper)
And that's just a few of the quicky's I can think of off the top of my head.
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You are right on the money, another being track surface, this past weekend I had a race (real life), and I hooked a bump and was sideways halfway down the straight (3/8ths oval, and definately not the smoothest track). I kept my foot in it because I was so focused on trying to catch the guy in front of me (not sure if that's good or bad) but I pulled it out by a combination of the right countersteer (all I did was keep the wheels going the way I wanted to go, no more and no less, and luck that I didn't hit any other bad bumps, the rest of the race the car was pretty tight and only broke loose when I gave it gas over a bump.

another thing to watch out for but not so much in sims is that understeer will wear you out fastest as you are constantly pulling against g-forces

Also (a little off topic), but a professional Formula D drifter came to the track, I have to admit, that was a cool sight to see from the pits overlooking turn 3
 
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So I think we can end this debate. The poll is usless unless you specify wether oversteer is for fun or racing. Simply put, with evenly matched cars, if your understeering or oversteering your gonna be slower than someone who knows what thier doing and has a well balanced set-up. The fact that that poll is so biased towards oversteer shows me that most people are used to grabbing a car that is overpowered for the competition they're racing against so they can have fun getting sideways and then play catch-up on the straights. This is not competitive racing, it is fun and to each thier own.

For Racing with evenly matched cars or even same make races, neutral to slight understeer is preferable. Then you have the ability to get the balance/attitude you want via small corrections of steering and throttle. That is how real racers do it and sim racers that are trying to be realistic. I blame offline physics and the ability to be able to build your car up for most of the A-spec/B-spec races to basically obliterate the competition. When people get used to this and then join a racing league with tighter rules and reg's they usually get left in the dust by those who really know how to drive. If your one of these drivers don't feel bad, I'm not bashing, hell I'm part of the left for dust club too, but at least I understand the physics involved and why many, many people are faster than me. If you think oversteer makes you faster and more consistent though, which according to this poll, many of you do, you'll always be part of the left in the dust club. I for one, hopefully will not be 'cause I wont be stubbornly clinging to the thought that oversteer makes me faster.
 
Nice write up, but still can't change the fact that, from the two situations oversteer is faster. I don't think anyone believed sliding about everywhere will give a faster laptime but it is certainly the lesser of two evils.

There's no need to turn the oversteer preference into a blanket situation of drifting, that's not what people are suggesting here, if it helps you attack the opinion that's fine but we basically mean a corner full of oversteer is faster than a corner full of understeer, when I'm picturing my point I see a neutral turn in with slight oversteer on exit, this to me is hands down faster than understeering in the above situation.
 
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I literally LOVE oversteer. :drool: It's in my car blood. Everytime I see something in a game or real life, I try to drift it, no matter what. But sometimes, oversteer can be a pain when it happens in a bad way that you can't control, unexpectedly. And apparently, even though I can countersteer to control oversteer, I've had MANY consequences from drifting a BMX bike, to a shopping car, and even a lawn mower. :indiff:
 
Well said boss mustang, the poll technically ended a few pages back but there are still people who will argue no matter what is said.

The way I put it is, loading the right front shock from lack of front end grip (in a left turn) is better than losing traction in the wheels that propel the car and loading the left front with a quick snap of weight shift to the right rear then to the left rear when your countersteer bites.

My point is that weight and balance is changing a lot more in oversteer with the addition of loss of grip it the tires that are supposed to propel you,

think about that, it's basically backing up boss mustang's post, and see if I'm wrong

Yes,I get it most people like oversteer because it's fun but it's not fast, the idea of racing is to get the car as blanced as possible as soon as posible to achieve the maximum momentum possible through the corner and be able to carry the most speed down the straight
 

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