Learn To Control Understeer and Oversteer - The Secret of Sim Racing Success

the difference between a slow and easy driver and a fast confident one is having a clear mental connection with understeer and oversteer I'm going to make it easy for you to understand them and by the end of this video you should see a whole new side to your sim racing if you've seen any of my guides before you know you're not going to regret the 15-ish minutes that follow it won't be too technical it won't be too deep just a simple rewiring of your thinking to unlock your understanding if nothing else has and set you on the course to improve so sit tight and let's Dive In before we begin this video is supported by axc Sim creators of a true break and true pedal devices which can transform Logitech pedals into something truly Sim racing ready giving an excellent Advantage for not a lot of money if you're using Logitech pedals like these then you have to check them out head to the video description to visit them and find discounts and links for other SIM racing Brands there too let's start from the beginning and establish what understeer and oversteer are in basic terms understeer is what it's called when your card doesn't turn as well as you thought it would causing you to run out wider on Corners than you expected as if a front size have suddenly been swapped for hard cheese while you weren't looking if you're unlucky you might run out of track and sail off into the grass sand wall whatever's waiting to meet you there whenever you find yourself saying why won't it turn that's understeer oversteer is what it's called when your car turns more than you thought it would causing the back end to start coming around and making you fight hard just to keep control of it and avoid spinning out as though the car is skating on ice whenever you find yourself saying why is that so slidy that's oversteer so basically understeer is when the car doesn't turn well enough over series when the car turns too well of course it's important to mention if you miss your Breaking Point by 30 meters and the car struggles to hit the Apex as a result that's not understeer that's just you if a car's sliding around because you don't know what moderation means that's not oversteer that's just you so that's how to identify understeer and oversteer but that is merely the tip of the tea bag let's dive into why they happen and what you're supposed to do about it every car you drive has a front end and a rear end when it comes to controlling how your car turns the front end has a primary job of steering your car and changing direction whilst the rear end does the job of providing stability and keeping the car pointing the right way round if you allow either end to have too much control compared to the other that's when you get understeer or oversteer like a classic sitcom Duo the front tires are the ones making the crazy plans the rear tires are the ones trying to keep things stable and orderly but neither one should be given too much power in that relationship if the front end is too strong the car can feel too loose and snappy but if the rear end is too strong the car can feel too tight and heavy somewhere in the middle of those two extremes is where you want to be when you hear F1 drivers complain about the balance of their car being off they're saying that the car is acting too understeery or oversteory for their liking when a car is described to have a tendency to oversteer that just means that the front end has more influence over the car than the rear end IE too dangerous and if it has a tendency to understeer that just means that the rear end has more influence over the car than the front end i.e2 safe a car's attitude to either one is usually on purpose or by design for example a typical Road car will be tuned towards understeer for safety whereas many race cars will be generally tuned towards oversteer for Speed and Agility here's one way to visualize that front and rear relationship when you turn into a corner the front tires will point in the direction you tell them to go and by doing that they apply a force to the front end but points for nose of a car in that direction if the front end force is allowed to pull the nose of the car all at once without anything resisting it at the rear of the car then it would end up rotating too much too quickly which equals oversteer and a spin luckily for us the front-end forces are controlled by the rear tires at least when things are balanced whenever the front of a car is curled into a corner by the front tires the rear tires will try to limit and control that Rotation by gripping the track and stopping the car from spinning this is what keeps the car stable and facing forwards just like the tail fins on a plane or the feathers on an arrow it's when the fronts and rear aren't well balanced and aren't working in harmony but you end up with understeer or oversteer here's an exaggerated demonstration of this principle I roll out of the pits with fresh tires and I go around the corner nothing dramatic happens because grip is equal between front and rear the car is balanced now I'm going to roll out at a pits with fresh tires only this time I'll do a ridiculously long burnout in order to turn my rear tires into scalding hot glass rendering them nearly useless whilst the front tires are left intact now when I go around that same corner like I normally would the car spins real easily because now it's far from balanced under these conditions the front tires have much better grip on the track than the rear tires so when the front turns into the corner there's now very little that the rear can do to stop the car's rotation and keep it with in controllable limits there's no longer anything to guard against what the front end wants to do I've created a situation where one end of a car has more grip than the other and in this case because it's for front-end that has much more grip than the rear it creates oversteer this is the one big thing to remember but it's all about the balance of power between front and rear it doesn't matter what sort of car you're in how fast or slow it is or how much grip is there overall you could be in an F1 car or a lawnmower all that matters is the balance of grip between front and rear and the influence each end has on the car overall and there are numerous ways that balance can shift as a result of the things that you do as a driver if a balance is just right the rear end will allow the front end the freedom to rotate the car just enough to get the job done whilst preventing it from going too far much like how you do need to let a baby explore its surroundings but you also need to stop them if they're about to find out what electricity tastes like a Carver is set up to hit that sweet spot between understeer and oversteer as much as possible combined with a driver that knows how to consistently find it and stay in it will be the fastest one around the track and that's what I'm going to talk about now now that you understand that oversteer and understeer are caused by whichever end of a car has more power over the other you can start to think about what you can do as a driver to help control that balance because while some of the car's tendency to oversteer and understeer might be built into the car's nature and how it's set up you are far from helpless you have a final say on it in how you drive it the vast majority of Corners play out like this approaching a corner the car will usually be considered flat stable or in other words balanced on Corner entry you break and as a result the car's weight shifts forward onto the nose which gives her front tires more grip and the rear tires less In This Moment the front end is much stronger than the rear end and server car is more likely to oversteer if you let it in order to prevent oversteer on Corner entry you have to control the power of the front end by steering gently smoothly and with restraint because if you steer too hard and too fast in this phase of a corner the front end forces will overwhelm the rear end's capacity to control it put it this way it's possible to use a sledgehammer to tap on somebody's window if you control how much energy goes through it so in the exact same way you can prevent oversteer on Corner entry by limiting how much of that temporarily boosted grip the front end is allowed to use by steering with a measured amount that's your job as the driver in the middle of a corner you're not breaking quite so much nor are you fully powering out just yet so the car mostly returns to a state of balance between front and rear this makes the car feel stable again and the initial danger of over steering When you entered the corner is gone for the most part in the middle of a corner you're just holding a steering steady and letting the car Corner as well as it can then comes Corner exits and although this depends entirely on the kind of car you're in and the power it has once you start to accelerate out of a corner some of the car's weight will tip backwards onto the rear tires and off of the front tires In This Moment it's now the rear end that is getting a boost while the front end is being weakened and so the car might be prone to understeer if you let it in order to prevent understeering wide on Corner exit you have to back off the throttle and restore some of that grip to the front end to allow them to bite into the track again however in powerful rear-wheel drive cars especially those without traction control such as the Porsche Cup car we're using to demonstrate this you are also at risk of corner exit oversteer if you send more power to the rear tires van can be handled by the grip they have on a track at that time then you can overwhelm them and break their grip completely when tires are spinning skidding or sliding then they can't do their job so if you're accelerating out of a corner and those rear tires start spinning any rear end strength you had will disappear and fast this causes a very sudden imbalance between front and rear that results in the front end being much stronger causing oversteer and usually a spin if you don't catch it quickly and restore that grip to the rear end usually done by backing off a throttle and allowing the tires to grab a hold of a track again this is why in powerful rear-wheel drive cars you need to feed the throttle in gradually to avoid this because as you accelerate more weight is tipped onto the rear of the car and pushes the rear tires into the track in turn giving you more grip you can accelerate with you have to judge how quickly you can feed that throttle in to avoid using too much too quickly and break in the rear end but that's all part of a challenge to driving this type of car so let's test your understanding of this principle so far let's say you're in a powerful front-wheel drive car and you use way too much throttle on Corner exit causing the front tires to spin what's going to happen to that front and rear balance and will that cause understeer or oversteer well if you guessed that the front tire spinning would cause the front end to suddenly weaken giving the rear end the upper hand resulting in understeer then you'd be spot on this is one of the challenging characteristics of front-wheel drive cars much how like a Porsche Cup car can oversteer on Corner exit if you use too much power a touring car can understand if you use too much power under steering oversteer are linked purely and directly to the balance between front and rear and when you know that you can do something about it one thing you should remember is that despite understeer and oversteer containing the word steer both of them are actually closely linked to what you're doing with your feet it's not your steering wheel that shifts the balance of grip between the front and rear it's your throttle and Brake that do that if you suffer oversteer you can usually help remedy that by doing things that transfer weight towards the rear end such as backing offer brakes or even adding a trickle of controlled throttle by shifting weight to the rear and off for fronts you're adding grip to the rear tires and taking it away from the front tires changing the car's balance towards understeer if you suffer understeer you can usually help remedy that by doing things that transfer weight towards the front end such as backing off for throttle or adding a bit of break which is the entire principle behind trail braking if you've not heard of that yet by shifting weight to the front and offer rear you're adding grip to the front tires and taking it away from the rear tires changing the car's balance towards oversteer once you understand that oversteer and understeer can be used by you to counter each other and are not just things that occur randomly while you're going around a lap you'll start feeling like you're in control of what happens to you this knowledge becomes your safety net because if you know what to do when understeer or overseer are a problem then you will have the confidence to attack the track and go faster oh yeah just quickly only eight percent of my viewers are subscribed if you made it this far you've practically got to go on understeer and oversteer are actually rarely so obvious and easy to spot most of the town will affects you in small ways be it a slightly missed Apex or a slightly nervous entry to a corner every now and then but they're always there only ever a slight mistake away and they will strike multiple times per race no matter how good you are or how long you've been doing this there's no such thing as a race that's unaffected by understeer or oversteer at some point the difference is whether you are aware it's happening and whether you know what to do about it setups can play a huge part in whether a car is prone to oversteer or understeer I have neither the time nor the knowledge to create setups myself so I use setups other people have made but sometimes I might drive along and think to myself this car has a tendency to understand or this car has a tendency to oversteer so I'll make the following tweaks if that's the case if you're racing fixed setup series obviously you can't change the car's setup at all but you can usually change brake bias in a lot of cases and that has a big impact on whether a car will understeer or oversteer when entering Corners under braking got a whole video on brake bias so check that out especially if you are mostly racing fixed setup cars mainly this section addresses open setup Series where you can make tweaks to a car setup if I feel that a car tends to understeer as in I would like it to have a more powerful and pointy front end overall I usually try to follow in things one at a time in order I might lower the rear wing angle which removes downforce from the rear of the car tilting the balance towards the front at higher speeds my stiffen the rear anti-roll bar or loosen the front anti-roll bar tilting the balance of grip towards the front overall I might raise the rear ride height or lower the front ride heights quite literally tilting the balance of grip towards the front overall equally if I fail my car tends to oversteer and I want to calm it down a bit I would do the opposite of those things mentioned there are lots of things you can do to alter the balance of a car but I'm not a setup Guru by any means most of the time a click or two up or down on a rear wing is often enough to make the car a good fit for me and I'll leave it at that of course some cars are just built to have an attitude for understeer or oversteer it's just the way they are the variety of cars you can get in Sim racing offer different Dynamics and behaviors but give you a new challenge when you switch from one to the other that's all part of the fun right let's wrap this up before the rambling goes on too long the whole point of this video is to make you start thinking of oversteer and understeer as what they really are just an imbalance between how much force for front tires are able to put into turning the nose of the car and how much for rear tires are able to grip the track and resist it whichever end of the car has more grip than the other will usually Define it if a front end is too strong compared to the rear you'll get oversteer and if a rear end is too strong compared to the front you'll get understeer as a driver you have a couple of levers at your hands and feet that you can use to adjust that balance as needed either by adding more grip to the end of the Carver needs it or taking it away from the end of a car that has too much when the front and rear ends can't be equal I.E on Corner entry and exit you are responsible for making sure that the end with more power is not allowed to overpower the end with less and That Just About Does it thanks for watching I hope this has helped you see understeer and oversteer in a different light and maybe inspired you to go out and drive with a new sense of perspective I urge you to check out all my other guides as well you'll see the playlist linked on screen right now as always if anything's confusing or you've got any questions just comment and I'll try and clear it up and thanks for giving me your time remember to check out axc Sims range of Logitech upgrades leave a like And subscribe for more guides like this cheers again

Channel: Danny Lee

Views: 137,326

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Id: pq33hwmUVRU

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023