Oversteer or Underseer - What do you Prefer?

[Uncle Harry]

Take a stock Honda S800 race car to your favourite track. Do not adjust any settings apart from setting all the driving aids to 0.
This car is blast to drive. I would describe its handling as slight oversteer on slow corners which is very easliy controlled by winding off lock. On medium corners it is very neutral, and on faster corners it tends to push wide at the front with mild understeer, easily handled with a slight lift off.
If you do overcook your entry, the car will understeer.
For comparison I suggest every body drive it and compare findings.
At no time was the oversteer ever going to require handfuls of opposite lock to correct and it never felt like I was going to loose control.
It would be interesting if people "feel" the handling is diferent to what I felt.

 

[identti]

Lots of discussion going on. I'm particularly interested in Porsches in particular.
Supposedly the light front ends have been reduced through the generations, apart from with the 996 GT3 MkI and MkII. So porsches of today probably don't suffer in the same way as past models. Still, I hear, and have learnt from GT4 that you have to enter slowly and get the nose tucked into the corner before accelerating out. If you master this, there should be no real understeer, and should feel great when you slingshot out of the corner. It's just a test of your patience when braking early.

Oversteer, as said by almost everyone is definately a hinderence in track work if it is strong. Think of the Vauxhaul Monaro (Pontiac GTO). This car is a natural bred drift-machine, but is very slow on the track for its power. However a much less powerful Evo or Impreza with a relitively neutral/understeery balance would thrash it round a track.

 

[Niels]

Oversteer, as said by almost everyone is definately a hinderence in track work if it is strong. Think of the Vauxhaul Monaro (Pontiac GTO). This car is a natural bred drift-machine, but is very slow on the track for its power. However a much less powerful Evo or Impreza with a relitively neutral/understeery balance would thrash it round a track.

Pontiac GTO is a lame car in GT4, it doesn't want to drift at all in my hands, and I dont think I'm the problem really, drifted alot of cars already.

I dont think the GTO is deplayed well in GT4, maybe the monaro because somehow that car does drift a bit better in GT4, but they're not the real slide machines in GT4 they say they are in real life.

 

[Sum1s2pid]

as neutral as possible, but with a hint of understeer... blip the brake, transfer the weight forward, and it's mostly gone... oversteer is good for flash and showing off, but as has been said by others, i too find it better for lap-times if i tune whatever car i'm using with some understeering bias if the car does not naturally understeer... that being said, my preferences lean towards:

Favorite FF Car: Honda CIVIC Si-R (EG) '93

Favorite FR Car: Honda S2000 '99

Favorite 4WD Car: Nissan SKYLINE GT-R V-spec II N1 (R34) '00

Favorite MR Car: Honda NSX '99*

Favorite RR Car: RUF BTR '86*

*these cars really require me to really tinker with my settings, otherwise i'm literally bass ackwards enterring/exiting corners--especially the RUF...

 

[panjandrum]

No doubt about it for me. In real life and in GT4 I'm much more confident behind the wheel of a car with oversteer.

But, of course what exactly are we talking about here? Powerful FR cars can oversteer under power, and if you add in an LSD to that you can easily break both rears loose. That's a common occurrence in RL (Real Life) and GT4. I like FR cars that oversteer mildly when under power around a corner, but which don't break both rears loose too easily.

Some softly sprung FR Cars, (like the 54 Gullwing for example) have a tendency to understeer under power. But, these cars can be induced easily into a nice tail-out position if you manage the brakes and steering properly. I'm not talking a full drift here, I'm talking a little tail-out oversteer like you get in a good MR car (Lotus Elise), but you have to use the brakes to initiate it instead of being able to just throttle-off.

Good MR cars do have a perfect balance. Easy throttle-off oversteer combined with a neutral stance when under power, a blast to drive all-around and one of my favorite configurations (RR being the other one).

RR cars can tend toward both oversteer and understeer because of their design. Driving them (well) takes a lot more skill than the other configurations, but it can be rewarding. RR cars are the only cars I frequently drift (see: http://www.macmaven.net/gt4movies.html ). Driving these is like a dance. Interestingly, the Alpine 1600s exhibits no understeer whatsoever. An amazing car to drive.

And, of course, all cars will understeer if you simply go too fast into the corner.

So, the long answer is that I prefer cars which can enter corners fairly fast without understeer, and which, when they do understeer, can be corrected by inducing oversteer either by braking and twitching the wheel, or by simple throttle-off techniques. I further-more prefer cars which, once in the turn, can take quite a bit of throttle without beginning to understeer. They can be neutral or have some slight oversteer. Needless to say, I stay away from FF and AWD vehicles for this reason.

 

[Wolfe]

Some softly sprung FR Cars, (like the 54 Gullwing for example) have a tendency to understeer under power. But, these cars can be induced easily into a nice tail-out position if you manage the brakes and steering properly. I'm not talking a full drift here, I'm talking a little tail-out oversteer like you get in a good MR car (Lotus Elise), but you have to use the brakes to initiate it instead of being able to just throttle-off.

That's odd...the 300SL Gullwing has a swing-axle rear suspension, which means it should do almost nothing but oversteer...

 

[chameleon2]

Understeer is really bad news lol
Oversteer is bad news too but really enjoyable.
Can anyone think of a situation where having understeer would be better than no understeer?

 

[SavageEvil]

Understeer is really bad news lol
Oversteer is bad news too but really enjoyable.
Can anyone think of a situation where having understeer would be better than no understeer?

Deep cornering, any driver will say, it's better to have understeer, not too much. Can you imagine having oversteer deep in a corner, lol. You can go either way; car continues to rotate that you spin out or brake which causes understeer and then comes the fishtailing as you try to wrestle that car for control.

In pack racing, understeer might have you take out maybe 1 or two cars. oversteer in the exact same situation, well lets just say the number of cars will increase. Nascar is a great example, when a car spins it's a mess, 3, 4, 5 or more cars can easily be part of the crash. Understeer would have you hit the retaining wall which means the other cars can have more of an opportunity avoid you, but I've seen wall hits that cause massive collisions since the car sort of ricochets back into the race path, but that's an extreme understeer problem, usually because of tire pressures and track temps.

High powered cars with oversteer, while fun to look at, it's surely not something most of us could deal with. Sure your little mustang may slip when give it gas midway through cornering, fun, but i bet you that your heart was racing faster than the RPMs in that engine.

 

[Small_Fryz]

This is turning into a real life debate, but isnt it about GT4??

People always get GT4 mixed with real life, Some things in real life are the opposite or at least very different to GT4. Skilled drivers WILL go faster with a slightly oversteery setup then a understeery setup. Understeery setup is easier to drive but like i stated before the ultimate limit is lower compared to a slightly oversteery car.

Trust me i know what im talking about when it comes to GT4, if you dont belive me I will glady race you

 

[holl01]

i also agree with small fryz, in almost any situation on a track, it is considerably faster to have a slight degree of oversteer rather than underseer, as the oversteer allows u to slightly drift the car during corners, hence allowing u to maintain more speed as the front end of the car is at least pointing in the correct position, with undeersteer, ur speed will be hampered during corners due to a slight lack of response from the front end of the car

 

[R5Turbo2]

I prefer a well setup neutral car that I can get to slightly over or under steer by using weight transfer or grip control through gas & brakes.

PhM

 

[Andremus Prime]

lil' bit of both, slight understeer for entry and high speed stability, slight oversteer for tuck-in and tight corners.

 

[Pink_the_Floyd]

I always prefer oversteer. Both slow you down, but oversteer gives you the opportinity to show off while you do it. I just find understeer annoying.

As for my favourite car to drive, it's currently my Griffith 500. 👍

Oversteer isn't slowing down always, I think.


In my case I prefer oversteer,

As for the car:

'97 Toyota Supra RZ (white)
-330 HP
-All brake parts
-Full suspension
-All drivetrain parts
-All lightweight upgrades
-OZ Racing 030 rims

Specs:

0-100 kmh: >5 sec.
1/4 mile: >13 sec.
topspeed: 280 kmh
Most beautiful car for me in the game + alot fun with oversteer 👍


The '97 Skyline GT-R is also fun 👍