To be fair, much like the term ‘tune up’, the terms oversteer and understeer might seem a little out of date. But, we humans like familiarity, and while the meanings have evolved, the words seem to stay the same.
Basically, oversteer and understeer are motoring dynamics which remain with us, despite the profusion of electric vehicles and all their benefits. It’s all about how a car enters a corner.
In the States, oversteer and understeer are interchangeable with “push” and “loose”. The “push” taking you straight off the road, and “loose” being when the rear end loses its back-grip and starts to overtake the front. A bit like a doughnut, but yeah, not even half as cool.
What is understeer?
Understeer occurs when the car doesn’t turn the corner until it’s too late, and before you know it, the car is travelling far too wide to make it around the corner.
Oversteer, on the other hand, occurs when the car takes the corner too quickly, hitting the apex of the turn and sliding the back out. Too close for comfort, you might say.
It can be a bit scary!
How to deal with understeer
Slow down! If your car is prone to understeer, the most important thing to do is not get abrupt and frustrated or overzealous with your accelerator or brakes.
Don’t take the angle quite so hard to give your front tyres a better chance to regain their grip. Go easy on the car, it’s always going to be subject to how you choose to manoeuvre it. Stay calm, but move through your commands firmly and with confidence.
If you can, try and pre-empt what turns you have coming up. There are clearly some great map apps available now. If you can get a bit of a sense of what the upcoming corner is going to be like, it’s going to be a lot easier on you and the vehicle.
What is oversteer?
In a nutshell, oversteer occurs when your rear wheels lose grip and swing the back of the car out. Like understeering, this can be the result of too high a speed, too much braking, or backing off the accelerator too abruptly.
As the car moves towards the corner, any of these might disrupt rear tyre grip and upset the car’s balance. Before the turn is completed, the vehicle steers more to the inside of the corner than the driver intended, and hence, oversteering.
Bear in mind, oversteer is a lot more common in rear wheel drive autos.
How to deal with oversteer
The best thing to do here is back off your accelerator, but again, not too abruptly – and then keep your steering in tight control. Perhaps try giving the throttle a ‘tickle’ to get your momentum back under control.
With rear wheel drive vehicles, some experienced drivers can easily balance their oversteer into a four-wheel drift, sliding sideways through the turns. And if that wasn’t clear enough, please kids, don’t try this at home!
A quick word about your tyres
We just want to point out here that having decent tyres is absolutely essential to managing oversteer or understeer. It’s not just about your steering skills! Driver or electronic inputs can help manage understeer or oversteer to some extent (keep those stability controls on), but at the end of the day, you need grip.
For best road grip, tyre treads must be at a safe depth, and front-end wheel alignments can also help keep cars on the proper track.
Has this article got you thinking about getting your vehicle checked? Head over the service area and we’ll get you sorted with a tyre check, service, or whatever you need with a mechanic close to you.