What are understeer and oversteer?
Understeer and oversteer are terms describing the behaviour of a car while cornering near the `limit’ (limit of adhesion, that is.) Most drivers do not normally drive hard enough for these terms to be descriptive of the situations they encounter. Simply put, they tell whether the car wants to go straight in a corner (steer `less’, or `understeer’) or it wants to turn more in a corner (`oversteer’.) Understeer is commonly designed into most production cars so that untrained drivers, inadvertantly traveling too fast, won’t get into trouble. Understeer may also be induced by using too much throttle in a corner. Oversteer is designed into some more performance oriented cars; it may be induced by lifting on the throttle (Trailing throttle oversteer, or TTO). In extreme cases, lifting on the throttle may induce so much oversteer that the car reacts by fishtailing or spinning. Some technical details: in a corner at speed, the tires on the car will develop what are called `slip angles’; the sl
