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The Wet & Understeer


Deepsky
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Been ****** down with rain here the last day or two and tonight was the first time since I got my car a few weeks ago I've really gone out for a drive and given it some welly and noticed that my corolla has an insane amount of understeer! Maybe I'm just used to rear wheel drive and more sporty/solid cars but it does seem quite excessive and was just wondering if you guys have any issues and what tyres you run etc.

I'm currently rolling with firestone firehawks at the moment. On all my other cars I've always had Pirelli p6000's or similar which seemed to cope with my driving 'style' pretty well but just wondering if theres anything that goes well with these cars

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majority go along the lines of toyo proxies, personally i cant stand them. im a goodyear eagle f1 man through and through. :) a touch soft so wear quickly but spot on grip in both wet and dry. only thing is they dont do a 195/55/16 so youd have to jump up to a 205/50/16.

*assuming your on 16'' alloys*

if your not they im sure one of the guys with the same wheel size as you can give you their opinion.

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My Yaris is quite understeery in the wet compared to my crappy old Fiesta. Curiously, the Fiesta had Pirelli's while my Yaris has Firestone Multihawks so maybe Firestones just suck in the wet compared to Pirelli's?

That said, I'm down to 3mm on the Firestones so that may also be why it's getting a quite understeery in the wet; It'll be interesting to see the difference when I get new rubber on it (Looking to get some ContiEcoContact3's atm, seem a popular choice with other Yaris owners. You got any other suggestions?)

My brother stuck some Avon tyres on his Corolla 2.0 D4D and seems happy with them.

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the problem might not be just tyres although this will be a contributing factor. my car has the 2.0 diesel engine and maybe cos it's a heavy diesel engine up front compared to relatively no weight at the rear but my car feels like it's going to fall over everytime i take a corner at anything even remotely approaching 'spirited driving'... i have read comments from people even a small drop like 30mm with tte springs helps a lot?

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I'm running the standard 15's on my rolla.

CorollaD4D - I have noticed that the rear of my corolla does seem a bit twitchy and I did actually manage to get the ***** out a week back with a little flick and it actually shat me up, even though it was intentional it was so unpredictably quick and sudden in the way it just came round with practically no feeling or warning whatsoever, normally you get a degree of give but my corolla just seems to bite at the earliest oppourtunity.

But then, going back to my original post I am pretty much solely used to RWD where oversteer is far more controllable (and fun!) so maybe I just need to get used to the edgy handling and FWD a bit better.

I did used to be quite a bit of an oversteer fiend in my previous cars so perhaps I'm putting a bit too much pressure on the poor little car :yahoo:

But still the understeer is pretty mental. Will wait to see what other rolla gurus have to say on tyre choice but I have been musing upon the idea of dropping her a wee bit but don't really want to compromise the ride quality too much.

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My Yaris is quite understeery in the wet compared to my crappy old Fiesta. Curiously, the Fiesta had Pirelli's while my Yaris has Firestone Multihawks so maybe Firestones just suck in the wet compared to Pirelli's?

That said, I'm down to 3mm on the Firestones so that may also be why it's getting a quite understeery in the wet; It'll be interesting to see the difference when I get new rubber on it (Looking to get some ContiEcoContact3's atm, seem a popular choice with other Yaris owners. You got any other suggestions?)

My brother stuck some Avon tyres on his Corolla 2.0 D4D and seems happy with them.

my parents focus has Pirelli p9000's on it and it sticks to the road like nothing i've ever felt before and even in the wet the grip is pretty impressive. I've personally sworn by pirelli's since the p6000's came out.

Funny though that also my sisters little fiesta is running the firehawk fuel savers and they're not too bad on that either, however :wacko: .

other thing about tyres is that it's also often down to the individual person's driving style too I spose.

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i dont find my corolla toooooo bad.. i used to have a focus which understeered itself into a lamp post. admitidly that was on the cheapest economy tyre the garage had at the time haha

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mine underseers a little, but if you lift off the back will creep out and sort it out. since ive had my strut brace on its been alot tighter in the corners, seems to absorb any roll at the front and then spring back straight.

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Im running yoko parada spec 2's which are brill in the dry endless grip but not so good in the wet, lowering and a strut brace does help.

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I drive like an undertaker, so I have no idea what any of you are talking about! huh.gif

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I drive like an undertaker, so I have no idea what any of you are talking about! huh.gif

understeer = hitting a tree forewards

oversteer = hitting a tree backwards

horse power = how fast you hit the tree

torque = how far you take the tree with you.

hope this helps.

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I drive like an undertaker, so I have no idea what any of you are talking about! huh.gif

understeer = hitting a tree forewards

oversteer = hitting a tree backwards

horse power = how fast you hit the tree

torque = how far you take the tree with you.

hope this helps.

I actually lolled at that :yahoo:

It's surprising though how many people don't understand understeer and oversteer though. its quite essential in understanding car handling and improving driving technique.

Imagine a scenario where you're driving round a sharp bend or roundabout.

Understeer is where you turn to go round the corner but the front of the car just keeps going off in the same direction as the initial angle of entry before the corner and either goes wide or straight on instead of going around the corner. This is most often experienced when icy and you turn and the car just essentially carries straight on regardless of which direction the wheels are pointing. Often the biggest cause of understeer is too much power or speed when entering a corner, slippy conditions, standing water/aquaplaning or combinations of both.

Understeer can be simulated by being in a really low gear and booting it to wheelspin whilst going round a wet corner (not really advisable!). This will result in loss of traction on the front wheels and cause the car's inertia to push it off in which ever way the car's chassis is pointing, regardless of the wheels.

Oversteer is where the back swings out when going round a corner and if not quick to react and counter or expecting it will often result in the car spinning. This often happens in RWD when a driver is being a bit overzealous with the throttle and will cause the rear to swing round in whatever way the car's mass is wanting to go. (I.E, if in a right hand bend the rear will want to swing round to the left as this is the direction in which the cars mass is wanting to go). In RWD however (and this is my own personal experience) understeer is easily controlled by balancing the throttle and there is alot more feel to when it will happen and to what degree. In FWD cars it will often just bite unless you're aware that it may be imminent.

A way to simulate understeer would be to engage a corner or a turn and yank the handbrake quickly or if you're slightly more able you can use a flick technique to unstable the car right before entry to a corner and then turn in sharply if done correctly the back will slide out. But this takes experience and understanding of you cars characteristics.

More often than not for most people understeer will happen predominatly on front wheel drive and oversteer happens on rear wheel drive but are not necessarily exclusive and if you're being a bit of a nutter (or do it intentionally) will get both

Basically understeer = boring.

oversteer = :yahoo::toast:

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