Handling

[NigeSt]

I'm interested in how often the average Lexus owner leans on their back-end (what's the emoticon for 'ooer, missis')?

I'll assume that you folk can tell oversteer from understeer. I'd also be interested in your stories of understeer

Nige

[altezzaz]

Typically when I want it the least....

[Fargo]

wet roundabouts, putting ya foot down on an overtake on a slight bend..

[rhaines]

Understeer ? You need to ask the Evo that went off at Japfest :) :) :)

[Claire G]

I'm a wimp, the traction control stays firmly on :P

[Fidgits]

One of the reasons I bought the IS was because it was RWD...

And now i've owned one, I dont think i could go back to FWD

It's a lot of fun, handling wise, and has only caught me out once, on a roundabout in ice..

[NigeSt]

For whoever replied what's oversteer, here's brief explanation:

BBC Motorsport Car Behaviour Guide

Nige

[javaboss]

Well, I'm the one that ended up in a hedge. Well, a ditch anyway...

I had the full oversteer experience... Council hadn't gritted road, ice everywhere, slight bend off a roundabout... back overtakes front, hit no stoppoing sign, spin round again, land in ditch - car wrote off. And *that* was at a stately 30mph on a *very* large roundabout.

I don't consider myself a good driver. I wasn't playing around at all that night. I suspect, however, that not many cars would recover from that ice and bend. I was probably just unlucky.

pictures at - http://www.javaboss.com/news.html

Oh, and my nice new IS200 replacement pictures are there tooo! ;)

[GRiM]

I'm a wimp, the traction control stays firmly on :P

Yup, I'm wth Claire on this one...

My traction control remains firmly ON at all times.

I just adjust it between 0% wheel spin for wet conditions, and 25% wheel spin, for when I want the fun... :winky:

Racelogic Traction control you see

[UKPulse]

Hmmm, the IS300 is nowhere near as much faun as my 200SX was... AND the Nissan had 11bhp less! (but bags more torque) :winky:

[ColinBarber]

The IS is very tame, cannot really be compared to a 200SX.

[mudzs]

I had a 200sx s15 and thought it was a lot of fun but a bit risky when the wife was driving in the wet .Build quality was pants :yack: though and the engine was well noisy ,much better now though silky smooth. :)

[greeneyes]

Oversteer is... why I put Toyo Proxes T1s on the front and rubbish Goodyears on the back

Oversteer is... why I bought an Altezza and not some boring front wheel drive Camry supercharger.

Oversteer is.... what separates 'drivers' from 'passengers holding the steering wheel'...

[TheDon]

i love oversteer, just getting the car sideways out of a corner is why i bought a rwd car, plus most people expect a lexus to be driven sensibly lol. drifting past a saxo trying to race u is so satisfying lol.

understeer is a constant problem with me, i have had too many closer than close calls with it, especialy when taking fast right hand bends, there just seems to be no easy way of correcting it, just ride it out with the clutch pressed in and letting the revs drop before letting it out and hoping for a bit of rear wheel grip to shake it back. have corrected it once or twice by steering into the slide but that was when i had the luxury of time and space. not a great big wall. has anyone found a way of curing understeer? is it more common with the 4x4 style ride height of the SE rather than the lower sport? opinions please

[Loz]

Bit of a doughnut fan myself... keep the traction on most of the time. there is always a little dirt patch on my way out of the office that I hang the back end out on. the light flashes... its just my way of checking everythings copasthetic ;)

I would not want front wheel drive again.

had a bit of a boob on sat morning. turned traction of to lay a big darkie (cue reply from bazza) leaving Japspeed Racing after having my Purge Valve fitted. forgot to put it back on. gunned it as usually turning right across a quite (thankfully) dual Carriage way. car got halfway across, as I locked it over the back end went for a burton and did a 270 spin. had to three point turn it back to the right direction... made me think, never get ideas about turning if off in winter!

[greeneyes]

In broad terms, the less anti-roll bar you have at an end of the car, the more grip that end will have.

So a bigger anti-roll bar at the rear will decrease rear adhesion and increase oversteer. (so less understeer)

or the smaller an anti-roll bar at the front, the less understeer you get.

But these can take a lot of ****** around with to get the right feel...

Back in the good ol' days of gravel rallying(when cars had softer shocks, stiffer springs and less anti-roll bars) Datsun 1600s (P510s) understeered generally. So I used to machine the bottom of the front anti-roll bar mount and put a pair of old valve springs in there. This allowed the car to roll more in the nose while it took up the spring tension, then the anti-roll bar acted.

This gave me the only oversteering Datsun 1600 around!!