passive steerring

[simo79 0]

Hi guys just upgraded my shocks and springs on my vr6, H&r springs on standard shocks.

 

The old ones were evidently humped.

i have been looking into the workings of the passive rear steering.

 

Since i have changed its made such a difference to the car, but just wanted to check that i have is set up correct.

 

cornering is ace, it turns in so sharp to the point of feeling a bit like oversteer, am i being dufuss and is this the active steering doing its job?

when i was reading about passive steering it said it was meant to eliminate overstear, but that was a rear wheel drive set up.

 

having not driven any other corrados i have nothing to compare it to. i thought it was meant to do that until my friend drove it and he said he thought ot felt like the back was going to slide out, he has had mark2 golf gti,s. i then explained it was the passive rear turning the back in.

 

he was unsure.

 

Can someone fill me in on this please.

 

Cheers

 

guys

[boost monkey 0]

My 16v corrado used to oversteer with a very very bad rear axle.

[dr_mat 0]

The passive rear steering just uses the flex in the axle bushes to allow the whole axle to shift slightly, it's quite simplistic really.

A mechanically sound Corrado is what they call "well balanced" - i.e. under heavy cornering it will understeer, four-wheel-drift, or oversteer pretty much at your whim.

 

Even if you do provoke some oversteer it's not twitchy though - the tall tyre sidewalls, flexible bushes and long suspension arms ensure that it will regrab the road and hang onto it as soon as it can, so it's rare to find yourself ditch-finding. Also, if you do find the car nudging towards oversteer just apply a bit more throttle and you'll shift the car's balance back towards understeer, it's generally quite controllable.

 

Of course, if you've got crappy mismatched tyres, or one (or more) bad shock absorbers, or rotten bushes or springs, or you just plain hit a patch of oil or something, no amount of chassis design can get you grip where there isn't any..

[simo79 0]

The passive rear steering just uses the flex in the axle bushes to allow the whole axle to shift slightly, it's quite simplistic really.

A mechanically sound Corrado is what they call "well balanced" - i.e. under heavy cornering it will understeer, four-wheel-drift, or oversteer pretty much at your whim.

 

Even if you do provoke some oversteer it's not twitchy though - the tall tyre sidewalls, flexible bushes and long suspension arms ensure that it will regrab the road and hang onto it as soon as it can, so it's rare to find yourself ditch-finding. Also, if you do find the car nudging towards oversteer just apply a bit more throttle and you'll shift the car's balance back towards understeer, it's generally quite controllable.

 

Of course, if you've got crappy mismatched tyres, or one (or more) bad shock absorbers, or rotten bushes or springs, or you just plain hit a patch of oil or something, no amount of chassis design can get you grip where there isn't any..

 

ta muchly guys :salute:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

cornering is ace, it turns in so sharp to the point of feeling a bit like oversteer, am i being dufuss and is this the active steering doing its job?

 

What's your camber set to?

[herisites 0]

cornering is ace, it turns in so sharp to the point of feeling a bit like oversteer, am i being dufuss and is this the active steering doing its job?

 

What's your camber set to?

 

Good point ;)

[Supercharged 2]

A Corrado should feel very similar to a MK2 in terms or cornering but much more planted and far better at higher speeds and under braking.

 

If it doesn't and the shocks are new then it will be either bushes or bad geometry - assume this was setup after the shocks were changed?

[Rob_B 0]

Shot front wishbone bushes have a similar effect

[simo79 0]

cornering is ace, it turns in so sharp to the point of feeling a bit like oversteer, am i being dufuss and is this the active steering doing its job?

 

What's your camber set to?

 

upon a further gander, the front doesnt look right, one side is vertical and the other looks more on the positive side of things.

 

time for a vist to a geom speacialist possibly,

would it be advisable to upgrade the arb before i go.

 

once again cheers for your input guys.

[Critical_Mass 10]

The Corrado scares me at times - probably due to lack of experience of how it should feel. If i take a corner fast the back end feels like its going to step out ever so slightly. Is this the feel of the passive rear steering?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah set the camber to be more negative and that will sort the over sharp turn-in.

 

The axle bushes you only really feel with heavy steering inputs in tight turns. It does indeed feel like the back end is about to step out. If it feels like that during normal cornering speeds, you have other issues!

[dr_mat 0]

The rear axle bushes are the flex you feel when you push the car hard into a corner. It doesn't so much feel like the back end is about to step out (I don't think so anyway), just that it's bending a bit.. don't forget it's also quite probable that you've only got the outside wheel touching the ground at those times.. :)

You just don't notice it at any other time though unless they're so far gone the back end is slopping about, and it would never pass an MOT like that!

 

I have to say I've never been scared by a Corrado, it's always been ultimately forgiving when you do something stupid. And winding up fishtailing under heavy braking from 90 on a wet, bumpy, narrow and curved road on the first test drive I think it's fair to say I know how forgiving they can be.. (That corner just wasn't visible till it was too late, and you know how it is on test drives.. you're not in your home turf..)

 

The trick is to push it at sensible speeds in the wet at times when you have plenty of space and see what happens, this will give you more confidence in it. The steering (and your arse) will tell you immediately when it's about to lose grip, and even then it'll only slide a bit, they NEVER snap out, and as long as you remember the golden rule of FWD cars - open the throttle for more stability - you can escape from anything. I've had full-opposite-lock-omigod-I-ran-out-of-steering-rack moments that I was never ever going to recover if I hadn't dropped it into 2nd gear and booted it to pull the front end round. A brilliantly controllable car! :D

[davidwort 0]

After driving a series of mk1's, the mk2 platform was/is so forgiving, I'm admittedly a crap driver and entering a corner totally incorrectly the mk2/corrado lets you get away with so much, I'm sure there's many a time that I'd have been in the ditch in another car, mid corner braking etc.

[simo79 0]

I have to say I've never been scared by a Corrado, it's always been ultimately forgiving when you do something stupid. And winding up fishtailing under heavy braking from 90 on a wet, bumpy, narrow and curved road on the first test drive I think it's fair to say I know how forgiving they can be.. (That corner just wasn't visible till it was too late, and you know how it is on test drives.. you're not in your home turf..)

 

 

 

 

 

I totaly agree, since owning it the car actually instills a confidence with the cars ability, although there has been the odd fill your pants moment , but that was human error, launching over the crest of a hill ( scottish highlands by the way) and finding out that was the top and there is nothing but steep descent after that is enough to put any car to the test.

Awsome road by the way.......... I have added it to my tour from the house.

 

:salute:

[Critical_Mass 10]

Cheers guys. Ok feeling scared may have sound a little strong. Maybe took me by suprise.

 

As you said Kev its the initial hard turn in when taking a fast bend. But going by what you and the Doc said it sounds normal.

[Danny B 0]

 

I have to say I've never been scared by a Corrado, it's always been ultimately forgiving when you do something stupid. And winding up fishtailing under heavy braking from 90 on a wet, bumpy, narrow and curved road on the first test drive I think it's fair to say I know how forgiving they can be.. (That corner just wasn't visible till it was too late, and you know how it is on test drives.. you're not in your home turf..)

 

 

I also totally agree with that, the only times my corrado gets un-nerving is under heavy braking when it tends to fishtail as above - but even though I have done this many times nothing bad has actually ever happened.