Saturday, October 20, 2007

The Mid Corner Mystery

....you're bouncing off the rev-limiter in top gear doing about 200 mph. You spot a fast left-right chicane - that dips down - to be negotiated at 60 mph. You slam the brake pedal as hard as you can and in a space of 80 metres you've scrubbed the speed down from 200 to 60. Job done. Now, you breathe a relaxed air, yank the 'wheel to the left, allow the suspension to soak up any bumps mid-corner, yank it to the right again and off you go hunting the next apex. Simple. Or so you think.

In reality, once into the corner, you'll have the back end of the car swinging out (oversteering) if you are not on the throttle accelerating. But, if you accelerate too hard too soon, you'll have the front end pushing straight (understeering). The oversteer in this case is known "lift off oversteer". It's an oversteer not due to too much power getting transferred to the rear wheels (as is normally the case) but due to the rear axle getting lightened up. That's what happens when you suddenly lift off the throttle - weight transfer takes place loading the front end.

What's the solution then? Balance the car on the throttle. It means feeling the rear end and prodding the throttle just enough to just about transfer the weight to the rear that'll keep it glued to the track. It's a subtle art that racing drivers (need to) master.

7 comments:

Campus Placement Training Program said...

useful for racers like me da... by da way, have u heard of a racing game NFS UG2... if u need it, i ll give u... its a racing game...
:)

Campus Placement Training Program said...

chandru here...

S R I R A M said...

Mudiyala

Sriram said...

i had a lot of confusion between oversteer and understeer for a 100th time,again its you who cleared it for me.if possible post some articles like this,bcos it'll help us a lot.


iceman ram

Chandrasekharan said...

waiting for you to display pics of cars da... this would be xtremely informative...

Chandrasekharan said...

try to create a kind of gallery having cars arranged based on there cader ( SUV, MUV etc)...

Chandrasekharan said...

y no reply?