I have read a lot of posts talking about oversteer and understeer. What do these mean???

Better drivers than I will undoubtedly answer, but basically, understeer is the tendancy of the car to continue going in a straight line, front end first - i.e., if you're going around a curve too fast, the front end of the car will continue off the edge of the curve. Oversteer means that the back end of the car tends to come around and the car will spin.

Better definitions?

Not a big NASCAR fan, but they use a very discriptive term.....Understeer is PUSH...oversteer is LOOSE

Or to continue the NASCAR analogy: Understeer(push) is when the front hits the wall first, oversteer(loose) is when the back end hits the wall first...course, for them, it depends on who's on their bumper too....

Understeer - push - pushing - the tendency for the front wheels to slide in cornering. Extreme - you turn into the chicane and the car doesn't.

Oversteer - Loose - in a race with my arse - The tendency for the rear wheels to slide in cornering. Extreme - you turn into the chicane and come out backwards.

All cars can do both, but some car configurations will cause one to be more prevalent than the other. The driver can control one by inducing the other. Or, the real trick (art) is to drive the problem child Neutral.

My personal favorite is decel oversteer (and Z's do it SOOOO well). Read about it in 'Secrets of Solo Driving' and kinda scoffed. then the last time I was up at Marina, I got kinda brave on a straight and dropped it into third. Came up fast on the corner and poked it back into 2nd and tapped the brakes. Looked out the window JUST IN TIME to see my taillights go by...

steve77

I'm curious as to what the handling tendencies of other peoples zeds are (also what a stock zed should be like?)?

In my zed, if you push it through a corner, either off the power or only lightly on the power it will understeer. On the otherhand, if you give it a goo boot full she'll over steer. Mind you I haven't had the chance to try it at any real speed yet.

if i push her real hard through a corner she tends to understeer a bit, however if i let the tail cut loose she will do that also.

My goal it to make my Z handle alot better alot less slop and make everything that bit firmer.

I think negative camber up front will help this.:classic:

Hmm....mine also feels a bit loose and a little fidgety at speed.

Just made up a dodgy camber measuring device yesterday, rear right -2.5deg, rear left -4.5deg! Toe looks fairly off too.

Gonna have to do something about that....not sure what yet.

As I recall my car was very much a 4-wheel drifter once I'd upgraded my suspension. It would turn and turn and turn, then you were washing out in a drift.

This probably was also due to the fact that I had an open diff & a laggy turbo setup. I'll update with the 'new' attitude once my L28ET & 4.375:1 LSD are installed!

The car handled like a bucket of crap when I first bought it - retreads, stuffed shocks & saggy springs. It tried to tear the steering wheel out of your hand when you went over bumps. 25 year old suspension will do that....

My DR30 Skyline would be a mild understeerer - if I didn't poke the right foot & push it into a gentle powerslide (which is sooo easy & stable, even with partial throttle openings).

My C110 really bites into the corners, although I haven't had a chance to try anything at a high speed yet, as it's still got an auto ATM, I've been pretty impressed with it's handling overall thus far though. I'm aching to make her step out a little, easily done on gravel of course but there's no tire squealing and smoke on gravel. Fun none the less.

UNDERSTEER: have you ever been going around a corner, and you hit the brakes, only to have the front wheels lock up and the car continue going in a straight line? This happens a lot when it's Icy out here in Iowa, but I don't know if someone from texas will understand what I'm talking about. Anyway, this is brake induced understeer. The car tends to want to keep going in a straight line, and the fix is to turn the wheel more in the direction of the turn.

OVERSTEER: Have you ever been driving in the rain, (rear wheel car example) and as you go around a corner, apply the gas, and the rear end of the car slides around in front of you? This is Oversteer, and the fix is to turn the car Less into the turn.

If you can't tell what your car is doing, most likely it's understeering. Most production cars do this, However, the Z with the rear stabilizer bar often tends to oversteer. If you tend to spin out going around corners, you have oversteer.

Typically, the best bet is to have neutral steer, with just a little bit over or under depending on if you typically enter a turn too fast, (and Brake) or too slow (and accelerate).