Official Website of Steven Richards, FPR V8 Supercar Driver
Understeer and Oversteer
It’s a simple enough thing for us when we talk about it, but for everyone else it probably sounds like a different language. Understeer and oversteer. They are singularly the most important part of a driver’s repertoire for use when explaining a cars characteristics to the engineers.
All types of racing vehicles have a certain dynamic required to make them perform to their optimum. In basic terms, for them to achieve the optimum performance on the track and ultimately be fast enough to win, the cars must have a neutral balance. That is have very little or no Understeer or Oversteer.
Understeer is a condition of the cars chassis handling that produces a front wheel skid, or when you turn the steering wheel in the middle of a corner, the front tyres skid and give no reaction to make the car turn tighter. Generally this is because the car has entered the corner too quickly. Of course the faster you enter the corner the more corner speed you can carry and the better the lap time.
The same goes for oversteer. Oversteer is more related to the exit of the corner. Oversteer is when the rear tyres of the car lose grip with the track surface and skid. There are two forms of oversteer. One is related to the sideways grip of the tyre and one is related to how much power is put through the rear wheels using the throttle. While both are related they can be broken down to determine a more specific handling characteristic for the Engineers.
Primarily both understeer and oversteer are a skid or a loss of grip. In our game a loss of grip means a slow lap time. A slow lap time means a low starting position and a low starting position spells trouble when you’re stuck in the pack.
