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understeer

Old Dec 26, 2007 | 11:28 AM
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well its happend to me about twice mainly rainy situations on turns the car has a ton of understeer/ wants to drift lol and my traction control is on what seems to be the case of this ? is it normal ? if i would drop it on coils n have control arms would it happen more ?
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Old Dec 26, 2007 | 11:33 AM
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rain is rain, only thing you can do is too drive carefully.

slow down or you'll be making a "i crashed my Z" thread.
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Old Dec 26, 2007 | 11:58 AM
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Particularly if you're trying to drive fast in the rain, understeer will show when you've met- or exceeded- the traction limit. Nissan engineered it that way to give Z owners a chance to recover control. Think of it this way- if the car oversteered the same way, you'd be back-asswards off the road when you exceeded the limits!
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Old Dec 26, 2007 | 12:40 PM
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Originally Posted by dkmura
Particularly if you're trying to drive fast in the rain, understeer will show when you've met- or exceeded- the traction limit. Nissan engineered it that way to give Z owners a chance to recover control. Think of it this way- if the car oversteered the same way, you'd be back-asswards off the road when you exceeded the limits!
Agree. Essentially this is a racing question. Rain just exaggerates understeer.

You can make alterations, tires for example, or alter your technique. Understeer occurs when the front end is weighted (usually the result of braking) and the front tires are turned past their friction point. You are “plowing” and the direction of the front tires make little difference. The car wants to continue straight.

Avoid understeer by braking early and maintaining mimimum throttle.
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Old Dec 26, 2007 | 04:28 PM
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Its simple. Once you feel the understeer try not to over correct and once the car is sliding straight, hold the clutch down, rev to 5500, drop clutch, scare the **** outa your gf.
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Old Dec 27, 2007 | 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by capnstabn
Its simple. Once you feel the understeer try not to over correct and once the car is sliding straight, hold the clutch down, rev to 5500, drop clutch, scare the **** outa your gf.
Then play with oversteer.
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Old Dec 27, 2007 | 02:59 PM
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drive slower. you might be pushing the car too hard

(then do suspension upgrades probably since your driving is too maximum for the Z)
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Old Dec 30, 2007 | 05:19 PM
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Originally Posted by Z33_kid
well its happend to me about twice mainly rainy situations on turns the car has a ton of understeer/ wants to drift lol and my traction control is on what seems to be the case of this ? is it normal ? if i would drop it on coils n have control arms would it happen more ?
so does it understeer or try to drift? you are describing two things that are 180 degrees apart from one another

the simple answer...make sure your tires are in good shape and just slow down (alot), at least till you can tell the difference between over and understeer
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Old Jan 1, 2008 | 05:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Z1 Performance
so does it understeer or try to drift? you are describing two things that are 180 degrees apart from one another

the simple answer...make sure your tires are in good shape and just slow down (alot), at least till you can tell the difference between over and understeer
I was just going to say the same thing

I see lots of people say understeer and describe rear end slide-out which is really closer to oversteer. Understeer happens when the front tires start to loose traction and the car starts to plow through the turn, towards the outside. This is how 99.9% of stock cars handle from factory since it's safe and very predictable for most drivers. I am yet to be able to get the Z to do this. I have never understeered in a Z. As I push the car to the limit through the turn, I found that the Z always looses traction in the rear first and the rear starts to slide out which is closer to what happens when you get oversteer. Sounds like you're starting to drift with the rear end coming to it's traction threshold and that can easily be done in rain. I'd say you need to slow down or improve your traction.

Last edited by Ziggyrama; Jan 1, 2008 at 05:55 AM.
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Old Jan 2, 2008 | 08:42 AM
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Over/understeer is described as number of excess degrees the steering wheel is turned under a specific speed and [G and body roll - lateral forces].
Under/over doesn't usually occur until the lateral forces exceed 0.6 G's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understeer
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