When people who actually know what "snap oversteer" is use the term, here's what they mean:

You enter into a corner and start to turn in. The car understeers. Because the car is understeering, it is scrubbing off speed and slowing down.

Now weight transfer comes into play. Because the car is slowing down, weight goes from the rear to the front. This gives more traction to the front and less to the rear. The car abrubtly changes from understeer to oversteer.

There you have it: snap oversteer.

The more weight the car has in the back, the more it is prone to snap oversteer. A car with the weight biased to the rear (like a 911) is much more prone to it than a car with 50/50 dictribution (like the S2000), but a 50/50 car is much more prone to it than a car with the weight biased forwards. Since most cars these days have the weight biased forwards, new S2000 drivers tend to not understand the dynamics of a car with 50/50 distribution.

 

good explanation Mike...

that's why I was spinning all over the place at Bremerton. (that and they sprayed that water slippery water stuff all over the track)

 

Yea this doesn't happen in an S. I like the real explaination Snap Overstear = Excuse made up by bad drivers.

 

I agree. The British press were tough on the S2000 when it first came out, and the British dealerships issued a TSB to change the alignment spec