Oversteer vs Understeer: Which One Do You Prefer?

[Bobalob]

:d

 

[Xavier2342]

I prefer oversteer because it's easier to compensate for, as opposed to understeer.

 

[BOSS Mustang]

I prefer oversteer because it's easier to compensate for, as opposed to understeer.

Please explain to me what makes you believe that statement. That is what I want! 'Cause from what I've seen in the most recent posts is that some of us, that being me and a few others have completely explained our point based on facts and in more ways than I care to mention again, both physically and from a technical point of view. And all I hear the oversteer crowd saying is I like oversteer 'cause it's fun or 'cause it's faster or 'cause it's easier to compensate for etc. etc..

If your understeering so bad that you cant compensate for it then you are completely driving over the cars limits. You are braking too late and putting in too much steering input and overwhelming the front tires. The same could be said if your trailbraking and getting on the throttle and inducing a bunch of oversteer and you dont catch it in time. This has nothing to do with balance. You are overdriving the car, period.

Slow down earlier, tune the car to be neutral through the center of the corners so you have grip at all 4 corners and get back in the throttle smoothly and steer out smoothly. Once again, technically the quickest way around a corner. All 4 tires working to steer and accelerate and if you enter the corner a little too fast and you get slight understeer(once again preferable) simply slow down a tad until all four tires regain traction and begin to smoothly accelerate and steer out.

Yes, it's not as fun as sliding the rear and is easier said than done sometimes but this technically the fastest and most consistent way through a corner.

 

[Crazed_Coupe]

I prefer oversteer because it's easier to compensate for, as opposed to understeer.

It might be easier in your opinion but for some oversteer might be harder to correct. I know I used to enjoy a bit more oversteer than understeer while using my DS3 but now i'd rather a little bit more understeer because I have a wheel which makes correcting oversteer a lot hard IMO.

 

[ghskilla]

I like understeer if it keeps me from spinning out, I like oversteer for pretty much anywhere else, nothing better than putting on a smokeshow on the 'Ring.

 

[generationlost]

Definitely oversteer. I find that a car that has slight oversteer is challenging and fun to drive like my 228 hp (racing exhaust and racing air filter) lotus elise on sports medium with a custom suspension. It also teaches throttle control for cars with power oversteer.

I cannot stand understeer. I have grown a dislike for 4WD cars because of the understeer that comes with most of them. correcting understeer means lowering cornering speeds which feels very wrong . It ruins the rhythm of driving around a track.

 

[MrGrado]

I like understeer. If you have a car that doesn't oversteer, you can drive far more aggressively, you can brake extremely late, accelerate extremely hard, drive through winding sections of track at full throttle etc. The penalty for driving too aggressively with an understeering car is losing a little bit of lap time, so you can drive flat out for an entire lap and you will get a good lap time. You get rewarded for driving hard without getting penalized hard for driving past the limits so there is a big incentive to push hard and drive on the limit.

Getting a fast lap time in an oversteering car on the other hand seems more like playing the averages, where driving too fast will result in massive loss of time or even a spin, so braking early and accelerating lightly results in good consistent lap times and driving aggressively is not rewarded.

 

[Roush_fan_99]

The penalty for driving too aggressively with an understeering car is losing a little bit of lap time or hitting the wall.

edited, just saying. I hope that didn't make you mad but that's the truth

but otherwise with oversyteer you will probably spin out and hit the wall

 

[Downhill Dino]

Why do you guys keep saying understeer causes you end up in the wall? Do you really think we're that terrible of a driver? Or, is that how it is for you?

 

[Callum B]

Oversteer, because it's much more fun and you don't see the tree you hit

 

[BOSS Mustang]

Well I guess no one was able to give a technical explanation of why they think oversteer is faster, so far.

I will admit that I used to enjoy oversteer also, it is fun. But after getting a wheel I prefer slight understeer. The wheel makes the game much more realistic because it's harder to catch oversteer than slight understeer. This is the way cars behave in real life and is why most cars in real life are built with at least some understeer, even the sportiest of cars. It is safer and even the best drivers and race cars prefer slight understeer at the limit. In real life slick racing tires are very unforgiving. They produce a ton of grip but once it's lost is like driving on ice. This is why when you see race cars step out a little, they are right at that edge where it might snap into a spin. good drivers dont let it get to that point. Most of the time is only on corner exit where they've given a little too much throttle and they dial it back almost instantly, cause they know a spin is eminent and that will probably end their day. We are lucky as this is a game where we can continue most of the time after a crash. Hitting a wall or spinning out in a real life race usually means the end of your day.

 

[KamyKaze1098]

Oversteer ofc.
It gives you a better turn in, you can overtake someone on the inside without the fear of going wide into him, and specially as tires wear out you'll start to experience understeer. That would be bad if your car was setup for understeer allready.

 

[Hofstee]

Well I guess no one was able to give a technical explanation of why they think oversteer is faster, so far.

I will admit that I used to enjoy oversteer also, it is fun. But after getting a wheel I prefer slight understeer. The wheel makes the game much more realistic because it's harder to catch oversteer than slight understeer. This is the way cars behave in real life and is why most cars in real life are built with at least some understeer, even the sportiest of cars. It is safer and even the best drivers and race cars prefer slight understeer at the limit. In real life slick racing tires are very unforgiving. They produce a ton of grip but once it's lost is like driving on ice. This is why when you see race cars step out a little, they are right at that edge where it might snap into a spin. good drivers dont let it get to that point. Most of the time is only on corner exit where they've given a little too much throttle and they dial it back almost instantly, cause they know a spin is eminent and that will probably end their day. We are lucky as this is a game where we can continue most of the time after a crash. Hitting a wall or spinning out in a real life race usually means the end of your day.

Oversteer is faster than understeer because you can take corners at higher speeds.

Understeer requires you to slow down more just to get the turning points to actually line up. Oversteer allows you to take the corners at a faster pace and countersteering near the end.

 

[shirakawaa]

If you're sliding around you're losing speed anyway.

 

[Michelin]

There should be a vote opnion: Neutral, because I like when I point the L3 to make a turn and the car ASAP respond to it make the turn

 

[BOSS Mustang]

If you're sliding around you're losing speed anyway.

Thanks for that response to the previous post, you beat me to it.

 

[BOSS Mustang]

Oversteer ofc.
It gives you a better turn in, you can overtake someone on the inside without the fear of going wide into him, and specially as tires wear out you'll start to experience understeer. That would be bad if your car was setup for understeer allready.

This depends on tuning and that was gonna be another point of mine. Nobody said to tune for understeer. You tune to be as nuetral as possible with slight understeer if you go past your cars limits. You can create oversteer with throttle input if you need too. Tuned like this, tire wear should be even as long as your not exceeding the cars limits all the time. what your saying has nothing to do with tuning. Your overdriving the car causing understeer and front tire wear which if you continue to drive over the limits will get worse and worse. I think we need to seperate tuning vs. just plain overdriving the car. Every car in this game will understeer if you overdrive it. The only way to stop it is to slow down. Giving a good boot of throttle to get out of it isn't any faster than slowing down mid corner 'cause now your losing exit speed. Slow in and fast out is faster than fast in and slow out 'cause the loss of exit speed carries all the way down the straightaway and you usually miss the correct apex. I've never seen anyone be faster sliding the tail than someone who was smoothly and consistently hitting thier braking points, apex's, and not kicking the tail out on exit.

 

[C-ZETA]

Oversteer is all I ever get in some cars if I turn the aids off But it is much more fun than understeer, which is a really bad annoyance. Unless you're in an HKS CT230R, in which case I'm too busy procrastinating over how good it is to care Besides which, oversteer is the reason drifting actually exists.

 

[Bobalob]

Let's take an example of a motorsport in which the conditions are constantly changing and the surface dictates a constant amount of slip (although varying), rally.

Which condition do drivers go to great lengths to keep their vehicle in? not understeer.

Oversteer gives you the best of both situations in terms of managing the weight and grip of the vehicle through the turn, as that's basically all were doing here. We have the option to keep the powerband in the sweetspot while making a corner. We have the option of additional turn in at a similar cost to speed as understeer (we still have to make the corner) however we have the weight of the car and the load on the right tyres to get some power down sooner than understeer (cars prob pointing right way too).

There are serious debates about drifting being faster in some corners than equivlant grip runs, can't say the same for understeer.

Damn fun too.

 

[BlackG18z]

Understeer has to be the better one of the 2 for me, since i can easily control it by braking earlier. Oversteer is sometimes too much, but i'm assuming the majority voting for oversteer are drifters?

 

[Roush_fan_99]

Oversteer ofc.
It gives you a better turn in, you can overtake someone on the inside without the fear of going wide into him, and specially as tires wear out you'll start to experience understeer. That would be bad if your car was setup for understeer allready.

I don't get the understeer part. If you slide the rear, the rear tires wear out faster. Causing more loss of grip in the rear as opposed to the front

If you're sliding around you're losing speed anyway.

That's obvious and been said but the thread asked if people favored one as opposed the other excluding neutral, and was an honest question at the time and the thread should have stopped by now

But obvious or not, you are right. While oversteer has it's perks, and understeer has different ones, they are just as bad as each other, there is no faster way around the track than having equal grip

 

[KamyKaze1098]

I don't get the understeer part. If you slide the rear, the rear tires wear out faster. Causing more loss of grip in the rear as opposed to the front

You didn't get the point.
After 15 laps in a set of tires car behaviour will go from oversteer to understeer. So if you start with a setup that favours understeer you'll be in trouble.
Thats what happens when i'm racing in a Super GT series.

 

[Bobalob]

I'd like someone to sight one piece of data, example or quotation that proves understeer to be faster or even just as fast as oversteer.

Some people enjoy being in an awkward little niche.

It is a difficult subject because we seem to all have different ideas of where these situations are taking place, typically we may deal with over and understeer multiple times during the balance of a corner and although solutions are similar (throttle down adjust the line) the pro's and con's of each are vastly different.

I see many of the arguments for understeer are safety and controlabilty at the limit, that's fine it's exactly why roadcars are setup this way but I will continue to argue the fact that even tho both situations arnt really desirable from a racing perspective oversteer is faster, even if trickier.

 

[Bobalob]

You didn't get the point.
After 15 laps in a set of tires car behaviour will go from oversteer to understeer. So if you start with a setup that favours understeer you'll be in trouble.
Thats what happens when i'm racing in a Super GT series.

Seems to start off neutral for me then get oversteery as the driven tyres wear? I get very little wear from front tyres (FR cars)

 

[Antonisbob]

Let's just put it this way, you can't drift with understeer. 👍

 

[niqlajsommer]

I prefer oversteer... probably because i'm Denmarks best in drifting (:

 

[Joker-GTBR]

On a pad , I prefer oversteer. With a wheel I prefer understeer.

Same thing for me.

 

[BOSS Mustang]

I'd like someone to sight one piece of data, example or quotation that proves understeer to be faster or even just as fast as oversteer.

Some people enjoy being in an awkward little niche.

It is a difficult subject because we seem to all have different ideas of where these situations are taking place, typically we may deal with over and understeer multiple times during the balance of a corner and although solutions are similar (throttle down adjust the line) the pro's and con's of each are vastly different.

I see many of the arguments for understeer are safety and controlabilty at the limit, that's fine it's exactly why roadcars are setup this way but I will continue to argue the fact that even tho both situations arnt really desirable from a racing perspective oversteer is faster, even if trickier.

I don't recall ever saying it was faster. In fact, if I do recall correctly, in one of my ealier posts I did say slight oversteer was faster, basically agreeing with you, when you say it's "trickier". My arguement was that slight understeer is preferable at the limit for exactly the reason you stated, "safety and controlability". This is especially true if your using a wheel as it makes the game more realistic, handling wise, but oversteer still doesn't bite you as quick as it can in real life. This is because you can't go opposite lock as quick as with a controller. This is the same reason, from what I've seen on this forum, most drifters prefer the DS3 over a wheel.

 

[Crowood]

Oversteer, cause you can control it much better then understeer

 

[TimberW]

My arguement was that slight understeer is preferable at the limit for exactly the reason you stated, "safety and controlability". This is especially true if your using a wheel as it makes the game more realistic, handling wise, but oversteer still doesn't bite you as quick as it can in real life. This is because you can't go opposite lock as quick as with a controller. This is the same reason, from what I've seen on this forum, most drifters prefer the DS3 over a wheel.

+1. With a wheel, oversteer is hard to control cause your natural reflex is just not used to the countersteering unless you train your reflex to do so. DS3 is really easier to use to control oversteer. With a wheel, if you still can maintain a reasonable amount of rear grip, its still pretty easy to control with the wheel. Once you lose too much grip, it becomes hard to recover.