David Ray

I know this is a very loaded question, but in general, for the quickest times in a 911 (993 to be exact) do you want induced oversteer, understeer or complete neutrality? I was curious if this is a science (1-way only) or an art (driver’s preference) or one of those it depends: on the track, on the driver, on the setup, on the etc…..

SundayDriver

This is very much a driver preference, within reason. You will find fast drivers with very different setups. That said, I favor a car that oversteers in the slow and mid-speed corners and has a touch of understeer in the fast stuff.

Larry Herman

I'll jump in here too. It is certainly a subjective topic. Personally I like my cars setup with just a touch of understeer; just off of neutral. Ideally, I will have some mild understeer on corner entry, near neutral in the mid corner, and hopefully still neutral on exit. There are several reasons for that.

1) It allows me to enter a corner faster because I can still be on the brakes as I turn in. Loose cars are slow on turn entry.

2) In long sweepers mid-corner understeer is slow because you cannot get back on the power, so I would prefer the car to go neutral at this point.

3) On turn exit, understeer makes the car scrub, and so neutral to slight oversteer is the fastest way out of the turn.

I know that the other old-timers on the board will chuckle because I just described the ideal handling car, but IMHO that is what works best. You have to find whatever balance works for you.

sjanes

+1. I used to have the car setup to be neutral (to very slight oversteer) in the high speed corners so it would rotate well in the slower corners, but I found that I didn't have as much confidence in the car as I do now with very mild understeer in the high speed corners.

Larry Herman

Yes, and you can rotate the car under braking for most of the turns anyway, so having a car that turns in easily at the expense of stability is a poor trade-off.

sjanes

^^^ agreed. It was when I switched to the mild understeer that I really started working on trail braking and ended up far faster overall.

IcemanG17

Kinda goes back to the old saying "tight is slow, loose is fast"

Capt. Carrera

It also depends on the track. For example, I'd run more rear swaybar (more oversteer) at CMP than I would at Roebling or VIR.

RSRRacer

What Sunday Driver said.

rickdm

I read in one of the car setup books that all cars need to be set up with some understeer at the limit, or else you will not be able to apply power in the turn. If both tires are equally loaded at mid corner with steady state throttle, then any application of power will result in oversteer. How much understeer, how much throttle before the rear end comes out, that is up to vehicle and driver preference. A car designed so that in mid corner with a steady state throttle that the rear end comes out is probably only good for drifting

rickdm

Professor Helmüt Tester

I like'em 'loose as a goose', but ithat generally scares the crap out of my enduro co-drivers, so I've learned to moderate my set-up.

It's a major driver preference thing.

Sean F

Man, I wish I could get that setup dialed in.

SundayDriver

What is missing is that when you add some throttle you shift weight and the rear will now offer more grip. A loose car can take throttle mid corner is it is not too loose.

SundayDriver

Much easier when you have a car that can make downforce in excess of it's weight. Then you tune for mechanical oversteer and trim the aero for a slight push.

Flying Finn

+1