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Managing Oversteer

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SaxMan

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After years of driving front-wheel drive cars and ponderous SUVs, the Sprite's oversteer definitely takes some getting used to. We were always taught to let off the gas as you enter a curve and get back in on the gas as you go through the apex so that the car will "pull" you through the curve. I find that technique doesn't work too well with the Sprite. I've found staying in the gas at the beginning of the curve seems to yield a far smoother result...once you're willing to take that "leap of faith" going against years of driving other vehicles. It almost feels like going through a curve on a roller coaster.

Gordon Baxter once had a column in Car and Drive "That Old Black Healey" where he said you could take a corner so sharply, you could tuck it up under your armpit.

The full title of the column was: That Old Black Healey that I knew so well. That Old Black Healey would go like....
 
My bugeye had too much oversteer, until I installed the front sway bar.....what suspension do you have on it? Scott in CA
 
I learned the hard way when I was 17 years old. I lifted off the accelerated quickly in my Supra as the rear started to step out. As soon as I lifted the rear of the car drug itself up in to the field, hit a stump and flipped. Honestly, I might have been doomed anyway since it was an off camber curve that had gravel washed into it. Young and dumb. If I had not lifted I may have just ended up in the ditch instead of on my head.

My Sprite has a 3/4" front sway bar and standard front springs. The oversteer is very predictable now that I have stiffer springs on the back to help with axle location.
 
I wouldn’t be able to predict with so many modifications to the Bugeye of how it’s over steer characteristics will perform, that day will be here soon. However, in comparison to the Caterham I would hope similar in some aspects but very different in others. But I do love its ability to power drift being that it has a 100hp more that the Bugeye and 250 pounds lighter. What an ADRENALINE RUSH!!
 
I have a stock suspension. The rear springs are new. I have a new set of rear shocks sitting in a box waiting to be installed. Then, I'll start working on the front end and put a new set up there as well.

The oversteer is not scary, just something that takes some getting used to after the legion of understeering cars that I've previously owned. It's actually quite a bit of fun to drive an oversteering car.
 
Most of us are old enough to have learned to drive on a rear wheel drive car, and Sprite handling is closer to what we learned on than front drivers. Most iron out of Detroit had understeer dialed in, as it has been deemed "safer" and easier to manage, but adding power in the corners still helps, unlike front drivers which plow, and plow MORE when you add power. (As an aside, if you brake AND gas with a front drive car you can actually four wheel drift it. The brakes have a gyroscopic effect on the wheels. Add more brake to tighten the line and less to swing out as you exit the corner as you keep pouring on the gas!)

All that said, aside from (the much needed) front sway bar, be sure to keep more pressure (by about two PSI) in the rear tires than the front. That's the cheapest way to manage the tail happy Spridget. (Also as an aside, that was the biggest problem with the Corvair. Chevrolet recommended differing pressures front and rear as with the sprite, but people didn't follow that specification and the car then had "wicked" handling.
 
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