“When you see the tree you are about to hit, that is understeer. When you feel the hit without seeing the tree, that is oversteer.” With this concise and effective description, former rally champion Walter Röhrl described understeer and oversteer.
These are two anomalous and opposite behaviors resulting from a driving error on a bend, which cause the car to follow a different trajectory than the one set by the driver. Understeer occurs when the front tires lose grip upon entering a bend. The car steers less than necessary and the front widens the trajectory set by the driver: instead of turning, it goes straight. Oversteer occurs when the rear tires lose grip during steering: the rear widens the trajectory outwards, while the front wheels tend to tighten the curve radius. The risk in this case is ending up in a spin.
The type of traction – front or rear – is only decisive in cases of understeer or oversteer known as power oversteer, triggered by strong acceleration on a bend in a low gear. We verify this in our experience as instructors: in almost all cases, understeer and oversteer occur at a speed that represents the driver's limit, not the car's. What are the correct techniques, what errors to avoid, how to correct these dangerous phenomena? Find out in our manual! You can find Sicuri al volante on Amazon in paperback and on Lulu in paperback and as an ebook.
