disasterous understeering problem?!!!

[gundamzeta]

understeer on an MR2? how is this possible?


it's raining up here in Norcal so I decided to go out and practice in the rain...

i get about two good drifts in, but the rest (i did about 35 attempts) end up with me almost crashing twice..


here's what happens.. I enter the corner, and do the usual, late braking, fienting or e-braking, but what ends up happening are either uncontrolled 4 wheel drifts, or severe understeer with Zero front traction.

I can usually rotate the wheel to any upmost direction, and the car will continue to go straight until I stop.

It happens a lot in wet conditions, but even in the dry, this will happen even if I try some late braking. My noob *Censored**Censored**Censored*, however, combines the late braking with strong and admitly jerky steering
inputs.


I have a 91 NA mr2

everything is stock, and pretty old ( 81,000 miles), and the front struts squeek over hard bumps. I have scrap yard yokohamas 225/50/17s in the rear, and some cheap wall-mart 195/50/17s in the front..

i feel like i'm answering my own question but any other input would help..

oh yeah,, i have no suspension modifications. that means no cut springs or anything else to that nature. thanks

[nissanguy_24]

Hey bud, im down in bakersfield, we should practice drifting sometime. bit of a drive up there. but i think it will benefit both of us.

Anyways it seems your just not getting any traction on your front tires. Every one seems to think rain is great for drifting because the back slides easily, they forget that you loose traction upfront when its wet too. Perhaps for more advanced drivers this isnt an issue, but guys at our stage. it seems like from your description were probably at about a similar skill level, are probably going to have a hard time.

Anyways understeer isnt anything new to me, i have a 92 240sx with a auto tranny. which means no clutch work to save my *Censored**Censored**Censored* by breaking traction so after i felt comfortable with the hand brake, i've been mostly working on weight transfer issues. recently but rushing into the corner hard and breaking HARD.

Your MR2 should naturally want to oversteer, but that doesnt mean you cant understeer. especialy in the rain you need to get the back end to rotate around more, try transfering more wieght, or at first whipping up on that handbreak for longer and harder. you should be able to control the rotation by modulating the kind of force and time you use the hand break, then its just a mater of learning to transfer the weight to do the same thing


anyways let me know how it goes.

[gtrmonkey]

You like Zeta HE is te coolest gundamn on the plant better than wingzero. Zeta is the boom

[midengslide]

i drift an mr-s and its not un common for it to understeer sometimes also. Thats the thing whith MRs they have a small margin for errors just keep at it you get it down.

[gundamzeta]

It's too severe to just be some type of common occurance.

I think it might be my tires.

[nissanguy_24]

any other mr2 drifters?

One thing you need to consider about it is this. In wet weather your going to be low on traction in the front and in the back, however most of your weight is sitting on the rear axel. Which is probably giving you great rear traction in the wet weather. Next time try harder to swing out the rear. Cut into the turn harder, use more hand break, then worry about counter steering. Even if you start spinning then you've solved your understeer problem.

i wish i had more experience with the mr2 my self i could give you more advice, i fear my experience in the s13 isnt going to be too much help. But try that anyways and see how it works.

Yes your tires will effect it. but you should be able to learn to drift just fine on cheap *Censored**Censored**Censored* tires. if you were going to do so competitively i'd sujest something more expensive. but less grip is usualy better for learning.

And if your still having understeer issues look into grippier front tires. and stiffen up the front of your chassis more. maybe even some negative camber up front. But you should be able to drift fine on the stock setting for now.

Any one else out there drift MR2s? that could give this guy some advice or tell him about your experience?

[gtrken]

Two bags of sand in the nose and drop your rear tyre pressures.

Cheers
Ken

[gundamzeta]

Originally posted by gtrken
Two bags of sand in the nose and drop your rear tyre pressures.

Cheers
Ken

heh....

it happens during hard braking, so the weight shifted to the front.. I don't think that will fix the problem.

[nissanguy_24]

If your understeering during hard breaking, Especialy in wet conditions ever consider that maybe your locking up your front tires? i assume the car doesnt have ABS? how good are you at hard braking in a none ABS car? your going to need to break hard, but not hard enough you lock up the front tires and slide off the road.

[MrodDrft]

Locking your front tires under hard braking?
Think of it this way... you have your front tires.. you are using alot of the gripping power for braking, then you are also divinging that by turning grip, supbtract gripping power due to the rain, and subtract even more from buying your tires at walmart. That equals no traction and in turn, understeer

[gundamzeta]

Originally posted by MrodDrft
Locking your front tires under hard braking?

nope..

It happens even when I don't break..

I got new tires today, and I even put 80 lb bag of rocks in the front.

It still happens..

It has to be my own fault.

[MrodDrft]

I think it eaither has somethign to do with ur suspension and/or how you are shifting the weight of your car

If u havnt watched the drift bible i suggest u try it. Tsuchiuya discusses how to drift an MR2 and its differences from a rwd platform

[nissanguy_24]

Originally posted by gundamzeta
It has to be my own fault.

Well i wasnt blamming the car...

i think you just need to keep at it, your doing something wrong, if you keep at it your bound to figure out what it is.