Neutral Steer

[Helz]

Helping a friend out here with some college work......

Everybody knows what understeer and oversteer are, but can anybody explain what neutral steer is please. Have looked on sites but still don't fully understand what it is exactly.

Any help from the clever bodies here will be appreciated to keep him quiet :devil:

 

[H2DaE]

At a guess it's where there is neither oversteer or understeer? As in perfect balance?

 

[The Negotiator]

No under and no over steer, no?

hmm...

Checked at wiki:

Under all high speed (greater than approximately 10mph (16 km/h) for a typical automobile) cornering conditions a wheeled vehicle with pneumatic tires develops a greater lateral (i.e. sideslip) velocity than is indicated by the direction in which the wheels are pointed. The difference between the circle the wheels are currently tracing and the direction in which they are pointed is the slip angle. If the slip angles of the front and rear wheels are equal, the car is in a neutral steering state. If the slip angle of the front wheels exceeds that of the rear, the vehicle is said to be understeering. If the slip angle of the rear wheels exceeds that of the front, the vehicle is said to be oversteering.

 

[Helz]

Thanks guys, especially Paulie We had it down as neither under nor oversteering but were looking for that little bit more. I've now also found a few nice equations on the topic which will make him look like a smartarse

Any further contributions that aren't especially common are always appreciated. And why is understeer preferable to neutral steer? Is it because it's more easily correctable?

 

[centaur]

Not sure if you have already seen this one Helz:

http://vette.ohioracing.com/susp.html

Scrol down a bit for some info on neutral steer



Another one, more mathematically / science based:
http://www.calpoly.edu/~fowen/Konstruktion7BS/SteeringSynopsis.html



Also a definiton here:

http://www.automotive-translation.com/glossaryN.html

 

[The Negotiator]

Yes Helz, understeer is 'good' because at least the car is trying to carry on in the same direction rather than make a new direction of itself.

Also just read on oen of the above links:

"
Understeer is generally desirable because it produces a car that is directionally stable. I.e. it tries to correct, not exacerbate, sideways upset forces that occur in straight-ahead travel."

which is what I said but using nicer words

 

[Biz]

Is he doing National Diploma in Motorsport Engineering?

Been there.......done that.
Finished this year with D-D-M...yyyeeeeyyy!!

Off to oxford brookes next year!!

Tell him to use www.cdxetextbook.com

Very good

 

[faster4_tec]

neutal steer is pretty lethal, as with understeer you can only push it so far before you slide into a hedge, oversteer you slide backwards into a hedge but have some chance of controlling it and getting away with it, and neutral you just slide and there is absolutly nohting you can do about it.

TBH actually getting a vehicle to be totally neutral under most conditions is pretty much impossible, AWD vehicles can do it (sometimes known as 4wd drift), but a bit of throttle can cause it to oversteer, anda bit of braking = understeer.

 

[Helz]

Thanks guys for the further links and ideas, that's brilliant. Now he can sound intelligent in his essay

No Biz, not sure exactly what he's doing, but I know it's not a motorsport specialised course. What have you gone on to do now?

 

[snomonkey33]

Understeer pulls the car straight, resisting turns. Oversteer pulls the car into a turn, reducing the forces required to turn. Neutral steer does not affect the steering forces required. Here's a good link for more explanation.

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-faqs/247023-what-oversteer.html

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-faqs/247022-what-understeer.html

 

[Rawb]

Understeer pulls the car straight, resisting turns. Oversteer pulls the car into a turn, reducing the forces required to turn. Neutral steer does not affect the steering forces required. Here's a good link for more explanation.

autozine dot org has a good page on neutral steer.

5 years ago, this bit of information might have been helpful. Read the dates on threads before posting please.

 

[Eklipze3k]

5 years ago, this bit of information might have been helpful. Read the dates on threads before posting please.

But of course, if they're advertising a website they won't care ...

 

[Rawb]

but of course, if they're advertising a website they won't care ...

doh!

 

[x Alex x]

i miss 4 of the people in this thread.. those were the days.