Almost hit the Kerb!!!

[RedCalibra33]

Hi all,

I have to admit that I drive my Cali like Miss Daisy 99% of the time! However, at the weekend, in the rain I booted it out of a roundabout only to experience massive understeer and came very close to smashing the kerb! Fortunately she gripped at the last minute.

So, having a read up as u do, understeer is a problem with Cali's, so what has worked for people?

I suspect I hit some fuel so will try the same roundabout on the next dry weekend, but I'm thinking I need new tyres so what's the widest 17" people have fitted?

(Tyres are Nexen N3000! , 4mm tread still, car is lowered Koni suspension on apex springs 40mm).

[rips]

Oversteer on FWD cars is difficult to control. This is why most FWDs are designed to understeer

Nexen N3000 are Summer tyres & therefore poor in cold weather.
I'm sure they'll feel much better in the dry when the temperature rises a few degrees.

If you use your Calibra a lot in the winter then maybe some winter tyres would be worthwhile? These are usually narrower than summer/all weather tyres.

[RedCalibra33]

Thanks for the advice. I hardly use the car in the winter, hence recently had to buy a new battery!

Guess I'll invest in a pair of decent tyres for the front end then, but what's the widest I could fit in? Gonna be tricky as I have bigger brakes and lowered. U think a tyre firm would be helpful as long as they got a sale?

[rips]

A tyre dealer may be helpful, or they may simply want to sell you what they have in stock. It is hard to tell.

I have taken a further look at reviews of Nexen N3000s but these are inconclusive. Some say they are poor. Others say they are ok but don't say much else.

Tyres can be quite sensitive to temperature. I have 2 sets for My Calibra because it gets used all year round & the Toyo T1R's which give me good grip in warmer weather perform poorly in the cold.
If you don't use your Calibra much in cold weather, I really don't think you should judge your tyres on how they perform in early March.

[GreyDJ]

I have 225/45/17 and they are too high/wide as they hit the under arch shield on bad bumps. Think I should have gone for 215 or 40 profile.

For the problem you experienced a wider tyre, of say the same make, would probably not have made any difference. Assuming you were not aquaplaning on a deep puddle then the number of 'edges' and the compound are what really matters. As already said, the only kind of tyres that have much chance of gripping in that situation are winter tyres due to the vast increase in number of 'edges' and their compound optimised for lower temperatures.

This is one reason why all the premium tyre manufacturers say that if safety rather than performance is important then to be safe all year round and you don't want to keep two sets of wheels/tyres, then you should be on winter or all-year tyres, not summer tyres. Not applicable in your case but you just have to be very careful in high risk conditions.

This is a look at the two types. I have one car, currently a MK2 Cav that is on Conti 850 winters until early April. They make a huge difference.

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/yy13 ... G_6647.jpg

[Mark1]

If the car is under steering on a front wheel drive car, take your foot off the gas and it will come back, will that's what I teach

[smrw]

Understeer, oversteer - its all down to angle of slip. That is, the potential for the tyres to slide (very slightly) sideways. When you floor the accelerator the tyres will be working hard to keep forward traction, therefore they have less capacity to control sideways movement. If you are cornering at the time the driven wheels will tend to move outwards, away from the center of the curve due to cetrifugal force. So - a rear wheel drive car will tend to oversteer as the back moves out and tightens the corner (can be useful if properly controlled); a front wheel drive car will tend to understeer as the front moves out. As has been said you can reduce the effect by lifting off - or you can do as the pre-4WD rally drivers used to do and pull on the hand brake. They did have special ones, though, which didn't lock on with a ratchet!
Let's go 4WD!
-smrw