Yeah, yeah, yeah...I can already hear the responses to this one..."do a search"..."this topic has been ______ more than ______"...etc., etc.

Anyway, I think my question has a little different twist. I know the S will oversteer relatively easily in the wet, with cold tires, etc. But...my question is: Will the car oversteer in a corner (a dry corner with warm tires) at high speeds without any significant throttle input?

The reason for my question is that on my way home from work this evening, I took an exit ramp at a pretty brisk pace. But, I wasn't applying much throttle at all in the turn because I simply carried my speed off the highway, where I was doing about 80-85 mph (with no one around). So, as I was carving around the ramp, I wondered whether the tail could come around without applying any significant throttle, or whether the car would simply settle into a very moderate, and safe, understeer. The car seemed to be understeering ever so slightly, and I'm sure I could have kicked out the tail if I had slammed on the gas in VTEC land, but is there much risk of oversteer with a fast, steady-state corner, such as the one that I described?

Any thoughts?

 

With my S2000, I've never noticed any tendency to oversteer that was not throttle-induced. I've found its handling to be nearly neutral at the limit under neutral throttle.

 

On grippy high speed corners its harder to get power oversteer because being in a higher gear the car has less accelerating ability. But note that lifting off the throttle risks oversteer by unweighting the rear tires and reducing their traction. These tendencies are more apparent in the S2000 than in your average street car. But really, stuff like this makes the car that much more fun to drive.

 

I had it happen a while ago ... even posted a thread about it:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...hlight=sideways

Since then I have not been game enough to give it another try at those speeds but I'm still planning on it.

 

Two good ways to get oversteer:

1) too much throttle (traction budget spent on acceleration)

2) too much weight transfered off of the rear tires (not enough rear traction in the budget)

So the solution is to use enough, but not too much, throttle in a turn. That's why you're taught to brake on the straight, then apply neutral to positive throttle in the turn to transfer some weight to the rear.

One of the reasons driving at the limit is difficult is that you have to know ahead of time how fast you can take a turn. If you overestimate, you have to lift or brake in the turn, causing oversteer (probably a spin if you were really at the limit), i.e., case 2. If you underestimate, you want to get on the throttle to speed up to where you should have been, but if you do that before you have reduce steering input, you're at case 1: power oversteer.

Ted

 

You may also find that if you go over a bump you will find the back end stepping out.... similar I guess to too little throttle, it is unsettling the back end. With stiff suspension like this, bumps in the road can cause you significant problems when driving near the limits.....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bjohnston
[B]But...my question is:

 

Watch for sand or debris on the ramp. Also, some ramps change camber. But in most cases, it's lift throttle oversteer that will get you.