Something I learned about understeer.
#1
Thu, 08/09/2012 - 18:17
Something I learned about understeer.
I found this morning almost by accident that I was mistaking a car's understeer for my own mistake. To elaborate I was turning into the corner just a bit late and thus had to make a tighter turn radius that the car could not handle. By simply turning sooner the car's handling seemed to come to life. I am sharing this so that maybe other new drivers consider this while racing/tuning.
So the morale of this story is.....when tuning a car take it easy, you are not trying to set records, you are just getting a feel for the car. Turn entry timing is just as important as a proper suspension set up.
This is why I recommend using a sport supension & arb setup until you know how the car handles 1st. I think I made this exact point while helping someone else lat evening. Good post.
From http://diy-racetuning.net:
"6 - Good driving lends to good tuning. You don’t need to be the fastest guy out there but you need to be able to run consistent, clean laps within the limits of your ability. It is essential. The last thing you need is to go into a corner way too deep, overload the front tires, and then start fiddling with the tune to dial out the understeer. Sometimes it’s the car, but sometimes it’s you. Knowing the difference between driver error and vehicle limitations is paramount to putting together a good tune. You can’t dial out bad driving with the spring rate slider."