Understeer in RWD

[gridgway]

I spent a happy, wet feb day on an airfield day working on ways of changing understeer in a caterham in tight low speed corners to oversteer. The most fun was to lift off in the bend, hit the brakes very hard to lock wheels and then get straight back on the gas. It certainly did the trick, just not an advanced technique for the road!

Graham

[Hasbeen]

You did not have under steer, you had front end breakaway. You probably hit a patch of oil or diesel. From your description you were not going very quickly, & were caught out a little. If you had been trying you probably would not have got caught out.
Playing gentle games by taking off bits of lock is likely to have you run out of road, if you do nothing else.
Gridgway has the answer. A quick lift off will give you your steering back. If you aren't too far out of shape a bit of a boot of throttle will give you back your confidence, & a quick wipe will get those little beads of sweet, that just broke out on your forehead.
Later, over a coffee, you can reflect on having just passed one of life's little tests, that a lesser driver may have failed.
If the lift off did not do it, lock the brakes, [If you don't have that damn fool ABS], because, as my old team boss used to say,"It may not get you around the corner, but it will reduce the impact, & the repair bill".

Edited by Hasbeen on Friday 6th October 15:55

[waremark]

pikeyboy said:

i agree with trackdemon on this one, letting off lock if your getting understeer is the way to go but its definetly not one's natural reaction when the front end wont turn in.

This old advice does not work for cars with modern stability programs. When understeer bites you have to keep on the lock (or add more) so the system knows you want it to help you turn in. Then it probably pulses the inside front brake and applies the inside back brake to turn you in if it is possible to do so.