Terrh

iTrader: (7)

my GSL-SE seems to have WAY lots of oversteer, and it's even got wider tires in the rear than the front (215's in rear vs. 195's in front)..

what's up with that? is it suppossed to be like that and I should just get used to it or is there maybe a problem here?

85rotarypower

Yes, all FB's have lots of oversteer. Its due to the watts linkage. Once it gets loaded up to a certain point in a corner, the back end will just break loose. This is reffered to as snap oversteer. There really is no easy way to solve this.

dirty86

panhard bar takes alot of work and maintaining but it fixes it

REVHED

Is the suspension stock or modified? It could be anything... tyre pressure, spring rates, incorrectly sized sway-bars. People talk about the snap oversteer but I doubt many people push their cars hard enough on the street to have experienced it. When it happens you know about it.

onepointone

just lower the pressure in the rear tires. at autox's (depending on how cold it is) i run 42psi up front, and 36 in the rear. i played around with it all last season trying to correct the oversteer, and that finially did it.

also, alot of people like taking the rear sway bar off. i know it sounds crazy, and i personally havent done it, but alot of people i have heard from like it.

Terrh

iTrader: (7)

I used to own a fiero with 10 degrees of negative camber in the rear and about 5 degrees of toe out.. I know the meaning of snap oversteer

this isn't snap oversteer.. it's just REALLY tail happy..
I've managed to lose it ONCE, and it was totally my fault.

I was going around a left hand corner ( on dry pavement, downshift to 2nd and slow down to maybe 40kph, go WOT about 1/3 around the corner (to kick the tail out) and I lost it... damn near **** myself lol.. anyways, that wasn't the car's fault, heheh

I've NEVER checked the tire pressures on this car, I didn't even think of it.. they could be totally wonky.

I guess I'm just used to my FC which will basically understeer unless you're either REALLY agressive on the throttle or you have 50PSI in the front tires and 20PSI in the rears..

S2-13BT

I've experienced the snap oversteer on the street, and was lucky to avoid a tree!

Anyway, since then I've removed the rear sway bar and softened the rear end. I've also replaced all the bushes with polyurethane save the rear upper control arms. I've had the car on a race track twice since all this and not experieced the snap oversteer again.

As Revhed has said though, it could be any number of things specific to your current setup. If you give some detail, we might be able to help better.

Nick-7

I think my car is very controlable. It is an 84 se and I love the way it handles. I can get it to oversteer when I want. I use to have real bad understeer though, since the understeering issue I have replaced the tires with ES100's and have had the car aligned.

85rotarypower

Well, if its just a usual oversteer thing, then that is just the car. The FB doesn't have perfect 50/50 weight distribution like the FC. The back end is light on these cars. That plus a light car to start with makes for a tail happy car.

purple82

The weight distribution, depending on the model of FB is anywhere from 50/50 F/R to 53/47 F/R. Hardly different than the weight dist of a 2nd gen. A light car isn't necessarily a tail happy car. With the 1st gen, as has been said a million times before, it's the live rear axle, it's roll stiffness, and susceptability to stepping out in a mid-corner bump, a trait common to live rear axle cars.

85rotarypower

Oh, my bad. I never knew that. Now that you say it, I can see that the live rear axle would contribute to that.
As for weight distribution, I was aware that all FB's were under 50/50. The front was always heavyer than the rear. Oh well, you learn something new everyday.