Lift off oversteer

mattyprice4004

mattyprice4004

mattyprice4004

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I've been having a think about this in the last couple of days, it's something that's well documented but I still can't get my head around it. :p

The other day I accidentally induced a rather scary dose of lift off oversteer, meaning the back end of my car made a damn good attempt to overtake the front. Came up to a corner a little quick, lifted off (totally... :( ) and next thing I knew I was looking out of the passenger window to see the road ahead lol.

What causes it, and is it a good/bad thing? I can envisage some fun, but can also see why lots of boyracers stack cars on the twisties near me.

How can it be controlled more effectively, will stiffening up the rear with a bigger ARB and strut brace help?
 
If anything a rear strut brace and ARB will make the rear more likely to step out, rather than prevent it!
 
apply opposite lock, apply power, grin.

May be best not to lift off as turning in and to driver the car out the bend after doing all the slowdown / breaking in a straight line bfore the corner.
 
Lift off oversteer is primarily caused by the weight transfer to the front of the car as deceleration starts. The front grips harder and turns under the extra weight and the rear becomes very light and skittish. Reducing suspension travel will help reduce the effect.

*ninja*
Damn ginger step children etc.
 
Buy a 205 or 106 and you will soon get your head round it, either that or you'll end up in a hedge ;)
 
Had a moment of lift of oversteer with my first car, a pug 205 xs back in the day. It was raining and at night time and I was unaware of the lift off oversteer thing, anyhow I came up to a roundabout at a steady pace and lifted off the acceleration as i was turning right causing me to literally drift round the roundabout in an accidentally stylish fashion.

Not one person saw it which was probably a good thing because if the police had seen me they probably would've said I was doing it on purpose. Was a scary bit of learning, I was just blessed that I didn't crash and the car had straightened up by the time i got to the exit
 
WhiteCobra said:
Just point the wheels in the direction you want to go and floor it.. This should pull the back end back in line :)
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That's easier said on the internet then done at 70MPH+ in a car that is heading in a completely different direction than the one you wanted it to be at ;).

I remembered the "Turn in, floor it" theory during my first experience of lift off oversteer. Actually I remember staring at my size 12 Nike's for what seemed like an eternity trying to will them to come off of the Brake and clutch pedal and on to the throttle. In the end I froze up, pulled my 'Oh ****' face and hoped that I didn't hit anything solid. That's how real men deal with things :cool:.
 
When accelerating, the weight will be pushed to the back of the car, if you quickly take your foot off, all of the weight piles onto the front wheels, more so when you're pushing it in a lower gear as the engine braking increases this effect.

If you do this whilst turning, the effect will be far more profound as the weight will go to the front left or front right corner. Because of the decrease in weight on the back wheels, they lose some of the grip that they had.

The better your tyres are, the less of an effect you'll get
 
What is this we are talking about?

Is this something that happens to cars that are not equipped with state-of-the-art stability management systems, such as DSC?
 
mattyprice4004 said:
What causes it, and is it a good/bad thing? I can envisage some fun, but can also see why lots of boyracers stack cars on the twisties near me.

How can it be controlled more effectively, will stiffening up the rear with a bigger ARB and strut brace help?
Click to expand...

Driving like a **** with poor tyres causes it.

I wouldn't apply opposite lock, just take off the lock you have on the car and apply some power. If you start flailing at the wheel then you risk it snapping back at you and being unable to catch the resulting slide back the other way.
 
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Got some (fairly) decent rubber on the back, with plenty of tread, and I certainly wasn't pushing it.

Suppose it was pretty fun, it was purely accidental though as I misread the corner and upon entering it, realised it was quite tight and lifted off.

I was relying on engine braking in the first place, and was at about 3,500rpm which is quite a lot of braking in a diesel... :o

Won't be doing that again for a while. Cheers for not just going 'BOYRACERLOL', we all learn something new now and again. :)
 
Oddly I have never yet experienced it despite me entering corners quite hard often and then releasing throttle while entering it ( I always press the clutch though if I enter a corner too fast), only time I've had the back out is with the handbrake or braking too hard halfway through on a very sharp corner (180 deg, parking lot) which I entered far too quickly.
 
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