Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Terminal understeer.

Wot, no Dab of Oppo DoO?

Only when showboating or frightening the passengers!

I was taught by my police trained bro that bike or car, if you think your losing it in a corner under steer wise always open the throttle. It's worked for me in a few tricky situations over the years

A while back someone posted a video of a guy who managed to understeer a BMW off the road and down a bank.

I once had a Caterham 21, into which I'd dropped a 245bhp Vauxhall motor to replace the weedy 1600 but light, Rover K engine, and everytime I went around Quarry corner, on Castle Combe circuit, it used to understeer, and nothing I could do would stop it, more power just pushed the front end on more, I suppose I could've broken traction at the rear with brutal application of power, but it didn't seem right, in the end it just became hilarious, as it just sat in an understeering position, and I could twirl the wheel and it made no difference to the cars attitude.

To reduce oversteer (bear with me a minute), Hillman Imps had a massive pressure differential front to rear. Something like 16psiF/30psiR. So in theory, understeer should be tuneable out to some extent by reversing the pressure differential.

You'll also remember Dave, that people used to put a bag of cement in the front, or a couple of breeze blocks, or something similar. They weren't all builders either! My italian hairdresser used to tell me of his younger days with a Fiat 500, in which they did the same thing, but they used to have a game of dare, in which they would drive full pelt at a wall, and see who was the last to turn away from it.............

An old bloke at work kept a bag of cement in the boot of his HC Viva to get through Derbyshire snow.
In 1976 that was.

I used to carry a few rough cast valve bodies in the boot of my MK2 Cortina for the same reason.

This only works if you have enough power to overcome the traction at the rear.

A fail safe method is to reduce the steering lock. this lets the front wheels regain their grip and steer you round the corner. Sounds wrong and needs some practice but it does work.