Understeer and Oversteer are terms used to explain vehicle characteristics, and they are important signals transmitted to you by the vehicle, it is how the vehicle communicates to you. It is the vehicles way of telling you what you should do next. In a nutshell, understeer and oversteer are the interrelationships of the front and rear ends of the car.
An Example of Using Feet Per Second (FPS) in a Slalom Exercise
If there is one exercise that appears in most all EVOC programs it would be the slalom course. Driving through a slalom creates an abundance of teaching points, one of them is the effect of vehicle speed on the decision-making process. The following are some examples of how that can be accomplished.
“High Performance Driving” – Scientifically Measuring Driving Skills.
An article that appeared in the December issue of Tactics and Preparedness. The title is “High Performance Driving” but the article is more about defining and scientifically measuring driving skills. Some excerpts from the article: “If a driver can use 50 percent of the vehicle’s emergency maneuvering capability – they are considered an inexperienced driver. […]
The Difference Between Handling and Cornering
Handling and Cornering are often used to describe the same vehicle/driver characteristics, but they are two separate issues. Cornering Cornering is the amount of centrifugal force the car can generate measured in g’s, and expressed as Lateral Acceleration. Cornering is a measurement of the force exerted on the vehicle’s center of gravity. That force is […]
The Dynamics of a Vehicle Emergency
Anytime the steering wheel is moved while the car is in motion, a lateral or sideways force is created. This force is pushing in the opposite direction the car is turning. This force is an expression of inertia, or, as stated in Newton’s First Law of Motion, a body at rest tends to remain at […]