Have you heard the expressions, a particular car oversteer or other understeer? Do you know exactly what each term means? If you had a choice, which one would be safer to drive?
Let’s see what both expressions really mean. Imagine you are in your car in a large empty parking lot, with nothing around the parking lot, no poles or other cars.
Now start driving and turn the steering wheel to the right or left to drive in a circle. No problem, you are driving slowly in this big circle and everything is under control.
Now imagine that you go a little faster and faster around the circle. Soon you will begin to hear a little tire noise. As speed increases, the sound becomes louder and the tires begin to screech. Soon they are crying and you know something is about to happen.
If it is getting more and more difficult to keep the front end rotated in your circle. That is, if the circle gets bigger as you accelerate, then your car will understeer.
If, on the other hand, the rear of your car appears to be sliding and looks like it will go sideways or backwards in a second, then your car will oversteer.
Oversteer cars lose grip on the tires at the front of the car and understeer cars first lose grip on the tires at the rear of the car.
So which one is safer? Almost all automakers design cars to understeer. This means that when you are driving too fast in a curve and the front end it is more difficult to almost instinctively push back the accelerator pedal. The car slows down and regains grip, and you turn the corner a little slower and safer.
This is fine for a typical car and an average driver. But if you’re in a race car, or a car designed to run on a race track, you want a car that will oversteer, because you let the rear end slide out a bit. This points you more towards the turn and you can go faster. However, you must have the driving skills to overcome the slip as you turn the curve. Or you will lose control, something that is not so bad on a race track, but can get you killed on a city street.