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This is exactly what you do for RWD cars if you don't have good throttle control. But this is not a fast way to set up a car. Recall: "loose is fast and on the

This is exactly what you do for RWD cars if you don't have good throttle control. But this is not a fast way to set up a car. Recall: "loose is fast and on the edge of out of control."

ActorNightly 3y ago
Not quite In a corner, because of the dynamics of a 4 wheeled vehicle with springs, the weight on each tire can be tuned by changing the spring rate. For example, if you stiffen the rear end springs (or use a stiff sway bar that effectively increases the spring rate when the one side is loaded), you end up with a more uneven distribution of weight on the rear tire, and a more even weight distribution on the front. Furthermore tires behave in a non linear way in terms of lateral grip. That is, if each tire has 50% of vertical load, evenly, the lateral grip is maximal. If one tire has 30% and the other tire has 70% (due to static weight transfer in a corner), the total lateral grip is less than maximal. Combining these two effects is how you tune the cars. If you look at sport FWD cars, especially rally ones, they lift the rear inside tire while cornering. That is because they run a very stiff rear suspension to ensure that the lateral grip on the rear is less than the front when in a corner, because of the above 2 effects. The reason they do that is that FWD cars are very prone to understeer (if the front tires are driving, they don't have as much lateral grip). This balances the cars out more, letting the rear come about as long as there is lateral load transfer. The downside is that the car becomes very prone to lift off oversteer because of forward weight transfer. With RWD cars its the opposite. If you have enough power to cause oversteer, running a stiff front sway bar means that the rear tires have more evenly distributed vertical load which means more lateral grip, which means you can put down more throttle without losing lateral grip at the rear. The downside is that the cars have to be driven more aggressively into the corner, with heavier braking and earlier throttle application. There are of course other considerations to this, but this is generally how cars are tuned for oversteer/understeer. You can use these effects for your cars as well, sway bars are available for most every vehicle out there. If you have a FWD car, you can remove the front sway bar and change the rear one for a stiff one, and you will readily see that the car just seems to turn better.
- singleshot_ 3y ago
  I’m not sure why a person would be trying to race a FWD car or why they would burn up their right rear by using the throttle to create oversteer. But I do know that none of this would be a problem if the car turned well. I maintain that loose is fast. (It’s possible that you’re talking about one of those strange forms of racing where they sometimes turn right?)

This is exactly what you do for RWD cars if you don't have good throttle control. But this is not a fast way to set up a car. Recall: "loose is fast and on the edge of out of control."

ActorNightly 3y ago

Not quite In a corner, because of the dynamics of a 4 wheeled vehicle with springs, the weight on each tire can be tuned by changing the spring rate. For example, if you stiffen the rear end springs (or use a stiff sway bar that effectively increases the spring rate when the one side is loaded), you end up with a more uneven distribution of weight on the rear tire, and a more even weight distribution on the front. Furthermore tires behave in a non linear way in terms of lateral grip. That is, if each tire has 50% of vertical load, evenly, the lateral grip is maximal. If one tire has 30% and the other tire has 70% (due to static weight transfer in a corner), the total lateral grip is less than maximal. Combining these two effects is how you tune the cars. If you look at sport FWD cars, especially rally ones, they lift the rear inside tire while cornering. That is because they run a very stiff rear suspension to ensure that the lateral grip on the rear is less than the front when in a corner, because of the above 2 effects. The reason they do that is that FWD cars are very prone to understeer (if the front tires are driving, they don't have as much lateral grip). This balances the cars out more, letting the rear come about as long as there is lateral load transfer. The downside is that the car becomes very prone to lift off oversteer because of forward weight transfer. With RWD cars its the opposite. If you have enough power to cause oversteer, running a stiff front sway bar means that the rear tires have more evenly distributed vertical load which means more lateral grip, which means you can put down more throttle without losing lateral grip at the rear. The downside is that the cars have to be driven more aggressively into the corner, with heavier braking and earlier throttle application. There are of course other considerations to this, but this is generally how cars are tuned for oversteer/understeer. You can use these effects for your cars as well, sway bars are available for most every vehicle out there. If you have a FWD car, you can remove the front sway bar and change the rear one for a stiff one, and you will readily see that the car just seems to turn better.

singleshot_ 3y ago
I’m not sure why a person would be trying to race a FWD car or why they would burn up their right rear by using the throttle to create oversteer. But I do know that none of this would be a problem if the car turned well. I maintain that loose is fast. (It’s possible that you’re talking about one of those strange forms of racing where they sometimes turn right?)