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Originally Posted by Greenback
My understanding of road cars is that RWD cars are more prone to oversteer while FWD tend to understeer. (Is this correct?)
My question is, if the engineer could adjust a F1 car (RWD) to understeer, can we make a FWD road car to oversteer?
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Depends on the horse power!!
There are so many ways to induce one over the other. Shocks, Springs, weight distribution, chassis stiffness - then you really go silly with tyre pressures, toe in/toe out, camber, castor, corner weights, roll bars, diff settings, engine mapping settings, not to mention the wings!!
But in simple theory, a softer front end will bite, therefore turn in more effectively, a stiffer rear will 'loosen' the rear end effectively turning the car in. However if a car is too soft at the front, it too can induce understeer. Also remember that weight, especially in an open wheeler can play a massive roll in balance - a car set up perfectly on a full tank may not necissarily be any good on low fuel - you could go on for days explaining the details!
One other point to make note is driver preference - Some prefer cars with an initial tendency to understeer, some like to drive with the rear, others like perfectly neutral... Oh brother...
