> I believe most road cars are setup to understeer. i.e.  cornering too
> quickly will result in understeer. If they were setup to oversteer it
> would catch out a lot of people and would be difficult to drive safely.
>
> That said, a RWD car can typically induce oversteer on demand. i.e.
> just stomp the gas mid corner. This can be used to correct the
> understeer (if space & driver skill allows).

I long long ago had a Hillman Imp. (You never own a Hillman Imp, you only 
pay them off).
Despite being rear engined it would wash out the FRONT wheels under 
excessively enthusiastic cornering. The cure was to point the steering where 
you wanted to go and give it full power. In 'due course' the rear would 
start to come out and the front would bite and it would leap into oversteer.

I got used to doing this 'for fun' well enough that I trusted the effect - 
and then one day found myself inadvertently in a situation where doing it in 
earnest was vital. The front washed out on a wet suburban corner (entering 
my home street) at lowish speed and the car started across the road towards 
a car coming up the street. Application of full power, despite brain and 
instincts telling me that accelating into an oncoming car didn't seem like 
an overly good idea, produced the desired result, and the car suddenly 
corrected and leaped back towards the correct side of the road. That may 
have been the last time I ever allowed the car to do that to me :-).


     Russell



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