Spring rates to reduce understeer: Stiffer or softer?

[tibs]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering something. Been playing GTR2 for ages now, but the spring settings are confusing me. In the game, if you want to reduce understeer, you soften the fronts.

However, in all the books I've been reading about real life, they say that to reduce understeer you have to stifen the front springs to make the front more responsive...

So which is it?

[redi]

More responsive is something different than being under- or oversteery. It means that the car is responding more quickly/directly to steering, but that doesn't mean it turns in better (that has to do with weight transfer to the wheels/tyres and grip levels).

If front springs are soft, it means the front of the car can push harder on the front tyres and therefore give more grip on the front tyres, because the weaker springs allow weight to be transfered to the front. By stiffening the front springs you prevent weight transfer to the front wheels from happening, so you have less grip on the front tyres and hence more understeer.
Softer front springs also means that when steering it takes longer before the car's weight has been redistributed and the car starts turning.

At least that's how I think it works, but I don't know nuthin' about cars :mrgreen:

[71GTO]

In addition to what Redi has posted..... The cars behavior is dependent on many factors. Your question is too vague. You need to identify what your car is doing to adjust it:

Understeer on corner entry
Understeer on corner middle
Understeer on corner exit
Understeer on high-speed corners
Global understeer

All of the above symptoms have different solutions. So to give you the answer or one thing to change to fix your understeer is not such an easy answer. There is no "silver bullet" to fix the problem. There are guides around to setup cars. GTR Setup Guide (http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=11912&d=1218789968) is a good one but you need MS Xcell to view it.

Goat

[JWhis]

A good place to start would be to look at your driving style, and racing line. In particular how you modulate between the gas and brake. You can control a lot of the weight transfer that causes under/oversteer by being smooth with the brake and throttle and not having "jerky" transitions that throw the car off balance.

[tibs]

Thanks guys. Yeah I know this is one of the many things, and the springs by themselves are only one chapter of a book, but I'm fine with the rest, the sprigs were just confusing me a little.