Could someone please explain to me all aspects of "understeer" and common ways of correcting or reducing such activity?

 

Understeer is literally the tendency of a car to keep going in a straight line when too much steering input results in traction loss. In other words, you turn hard and the result is traction loss and a slide rather than a spinout (oversteer). Almost all production cars today are tuned by design to understeer, as this is much easier to recover from (turn into the slide, hit the brakes, turn out) than a spin condition.

Understeer is actually desirable in many situations; certainly it is preferable to oversteer, which can result in your car facing the wrong direction and thus make it nearly impossible to recover without a crash. The best possible scenario is a "neutral" car that neither oversteers or understeers, but this is very difficult to achieve which is why so many car manufacturers opt for mild understeer.

The easiest and most effective fix for understeer is improved driving skills; knowing how to brake, accelerate and coast properly inside a turn is a bigger benefit than any aftermarket solution. The next most common and effective fix is a better contact patch; wider wheels and stickier tires help to turn more of the force being applied to the ground into steering input, so you can hold a turn longer before breaking loose into understeer.

With an independent front and rear suspension (such as with Subarus) you can alter the steering alignment of the wheels with upgraded swaybars, swaybar mounts and endlinks; keeping the wheels in very close allignment when turning, rather than letting the outside wheel turn out, helps to direct steering forces a bit more and prevent understeer. There are all sorts of bits of the suspension system (springs, struts, tie rods, bushings) which can be swapped out and upgraded to create positive or negative understeer, depending on your handling goals.

 

cusco tarmac 35/65 center diff + front LSD

 

LOL yeah - that's not going to be an expensive fix at all.

 

I'd suggest doing a HPDE track day at a local track. It'll greatly improve driving skill and understanding of the physical properties involved with driving

 

A cheaper way to know is also to do autocross. I know it has helped me out a lot. I thought I was good. I had no idea.

First solution is to slow down by the way.

 

I've always found that a little scandanavian flick will get rid of understeer. You should practice that in an empty parking lot before you take it on the streets though.

 

+1....... scandanavian flick FTW.

 

I was already laughing at you for saying "Understeer is literally understeer!" before I got to the rest of the first sentence. :rotfl: