a few questions

Hey, I'm pretty much new to cars/racing. One of my questions is, what are the advantages of rear wheel drive from a racing standpoint?
Also, whats understeer and oversteer, and what are they for? Is it just turning the steeringwheel less or more?
I was browsing through some of these forums, and i think I saw people saying something that you could balance out understeer if you give it more throttle, or something like that.
Does anyone know of any website that explains some racing fundamentals/techniques?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I'm sure it has been explained and a search would give you the results, but in short:

RWD vs FWD. I think it's personal preference, and I actuall like FWD cars as they are safer, more stable. But while it's harder to lose control, it's also harder to bring it back under control compared to a RWD car. The reason is that there is just so much grip available from the tyres, and if all of the operatins of the car are dependant on each wheel, it tends not to be enough traction on those wheels (front wheels on FWD cars have to steer, have to do most of the braking and also transfer rotation from the engine to the ground - a lot of tasks for the wheels). In RWD cars it distributed more evenly, and so you won't lose traction of the front wheels just by spinning drive wheels (generally speaking), so the car will still turn. Which brings us swiftly to your next question:

Understeer - the front of the car not wanting to turn into the corner, the car tries to slide to the outside of the turn front wheels first (there's plenty of traction left in the rear wheels). Basically characteristic of FWD cars as they tend to lost traction of the front wheels first. And to correct understeer you let off the gas (still talking FWD cars here), which should give some traction back to the wheels, the tyres bite and the front turns in nicely. And if a FWD car is oversteering (can happen sometimes), you add some throttle, the front loses a bit of its traction and the cars ballance switches to understeer. These actions are called corrections. One shouldn't employ them if the corner is taken correctly.

Oversteer - the car wants to spin, swap ends - this is because you lose traction of the rear wheels, while there is traction left in the front wheels. Basically the opposite to understeer.

Hope this helps :)

And come to think of it, maybe you won't need to search for anything afterall ;)

Alex

Thanks a lot for your help!

just to add something to the RWD things...the car can also be steered on the throttle by causing the rear wheels to spin slightly and to slide out. this is basically controlled oversteer, BUT DO NOT DO A POWERSLIDE LIKE IN GRAN TURISMO. in most types of racing (except rallying of course and some very high power track racing cars) getting the rear end to kick out a noticable amount will loose you speed. this is really best used in racing where there is more power than grip.

remember the words of a wise man:

...he who goes sideways does not go forwards....

erm i hope that made sense...i think iv probably confused myself somewhere in that

FR advantage: 50/50 weight distribution, much more traction on launch vs fwd & you can get sideways (oversteer) which is fun & you can go through curves a lot quicker. Drive an s2000 sometime, you'll see :)

err if he's just learning how to drive I wouldn't recommend drifting or powersliding...

tricksaturn, why did you feel you needed to dig up a post from march 2003 just to tell him that?

its pretty easy explaining over and under steer. Here's my way of explaining it.

Understeer: front tires wont turn as much as you'd want to on a turn, corner..etc..
Oversteer: Mostly happens in RWD cars. this incident just makes the rear of your car slide or either you put to much gas into the rear causin a near 360 degree turn...