understeer 2
So this is my next email to them, in response to their suggestions. You will find their responses to my first post (I hope) in following posts. So it will not be in order...
Hi Kevin, Darren and Steve
Thanks for your ideas. You have given me some excellent feedback and a “feeling” of your situations. It’s given me a lot to think about.
Darren, “not tremendously helpful” you say. On the contrary, you were all very helpful. I appreciate it very much.
What all of you describe is different to what I have. For example, on one long 2nd gear, constant radius wide motorway entrance, I can slowly apply the power and as the speed increases, the understeer increases and I can easily plough the front off the road if I want (in the damp and wet, I won’t get the speed up that high yet, to do that in the dry). Slow smooth application of power during this just pushes (ploughs) the front further. While all this is happening, I can turn the steering wheel (exactly what you described, Steve) to the extreme and just drive around ploughing like crazy, and must reduce the gas to live.
If, while it’s ploughing, I sharply and suddenly let off the gas, the back end should come around and say hello, shouldn’t it? It does not.
In December we had snow in the Ardennes. I was there with the almost bald rear tyres (I was waiting for the S03s). I practised for about 3 hours, just going up and down a twisty but very wide safe road. The roads were slippery (wet with a little slush), and I could drift the car, with or without power. That’s gone now since I put the S03s on the back.
On the other hand, I am convinced the car is not bent, I know what that feels like (and I inspected the car thoroughly), so now I will check the tyre pressures (excellent suggestion, Steve, I had missed that…duh) and see what that does. I also ordered new S03s for the front, to match the back and loose those front Yokos. They are old, I believe, even though they feel OK when I stick my fingernail into the rubber and I measured the hardness with my tyre hardness gauge. I really don’t know about those front tyres. I’m baffled. So, like we do with a computer, I will change the tyres and see the difference between old and new.
Then I will stiffen, very slightly, the rear anti-roll bar by clamping a tube or other lump of metal on the arms (temporarily, of course). I considered disconnecting the front antiroll bar, but I don’t want the car leaning anymore anyway…
Darren, you say you are doing your gearbox, I have noticed the big gap between 1st and 2nd, are you putting in the Japanese gears? Or is it just a rebuild? I have decided to leave this wonderful car (except understeer) stock for a while. In the future I would like 17 fronts and 18 rears (not with 35 series or 40 series tyres, there are too many holes around here) and then I will do the diff to compensate for the increased wheel size, and the japanese gears while I’m at it…
So I would really like to see your gearbox in pieces, to learn a little. Is that possible?
Kevin, did they put harder springs on the rear of later year cars? That would give a little more oversteer, I think. Well, they have a full blown test bank to try these things…
Steve, you’re right about Spa. I can’t imagine coming down the hill in front of the pits, then into eau rouge, and then over that hill. My balls suddenly are not so big when I think of doing that. The speed! No way. A few years off yet, I think. You guys who do that, well, respect…
Thanks again
Peter
'88 Daihatsu Charade GTti: 993cc, 3 cyl, what's your excuse?
'92 Cosworth Escort 340hp
Lotus 26R S2 (under construction)
'78 Escort MkII rally car
an ugly white van
and I left the best for last
'91 NSX