I have played with tyre pressures, but still suffer massive understeer and serious bodyroll round the twisty bits.
I read somewhere that you need to be brave and keep your right foot planted round the corner but when it starts to slide towards trees my nerve goes!
This was very apparent last night when I was "following" a Clio Williams, on the straights and out of corners he was an easy target but going round the bends his car looked much more stable and was quicker.
I've got 215/40/17 SO2 PP which I gather are quite good, what can I do to improve it?
Would lowering improve it at all?

Cheers
Jason

 

Geometry? Slow in fast out. Turn in more smoothly. Bumpsteer and Eibachs get good reviews. Clio Williams are fast.

Which MY Scooby do you have? Import or UK? I have to say that if you are reaching plough on understeer on the public roads maybe you are overdoing it a bit or there is something not right with your car, unless it's wet or you are in very slow corners.

 

Are your shocks gone? Dont forget you will probably have more inertia and weight moving around. The Scoob is a physically bigger car.

There's nothing to say that the ***** hadn't been upgraded. Shocks and ARB's seem to be a favourite mod on them. They do handle very well in standard form.

With the Scoob, I've found it best to be slightly slow into the corner but on the power into the entry so the 4wd system does it's thang and sucks you to the road.

The Scoob is not infallable tho. There are better handling cars out there. Repeated tests on twisty tracks have shown the Scoob to suffer from under steer. Hence the previous post mentioning the Bump Steer removal and the Eibachs.

I will be going Eibach springs when funds allow.

IMO yada yada, if I'm spouting rubbish I shall be corrected.

P.

 

I've just got an MY97.
It still has the standard 15" wheels :-( and it did have 195/45r15 on the corners (only checked tread depth not actual tyre sizes doh!). It handled beautifully, really neutral round the corners. A screw through 2 tyres (after 2 weeks of owning it) and I decided to replace all 4 with the correct size of 205/55r15 and now I get understeer quite lot (around corners I didn't before). I had the wheels aligned when I had the tyres fitted.

At the moment I'm still running the 32psi on each corner that the garage put in but I might try adjusting them this weekend to see if I can reduce the understeer.

Matt

 

Hi Matt,
I don't have any photos of the car yet but I will get some over the weekend.
I've got 17" Prodrive alloys in gold, they certainly look a lot better than the std.15".
I always thought the bigger wheel would improve the handling as well but I would suggest asking someone with more technical knowledge than me! A friend of mine kept muttering something about the heavier wheel affecting the "sprung rate" or something like that but I ignored him and carried on polishing 'em!

Jason

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by jaycee:
<B>Coming into the bend and round it caused me concern, should I have just kept my foot planted and wait for it to grip again?

Jason [/quote]

Absolutely not. Without practice you would either A) Understeer off the road, or with torque being diverted to the rear due to front wheel slip B) oversteer into a spin.

Scoobs have awesome traction and good grip in steady state cornering. Up to their limit they handle safely. Over that, they do not handle as well. Lots of urban myths about what Scoobies can do!

Find an open space, and have a play with the underseteer/oversteer issue till you are confident.

Or you will probably crash

If you have serious body roll, though, you may have tired springs and shocks. I'd also get the geometry checked, cos it shouldn't be as bad as you have said.

D

 

Are you taking the P155 ???

 

Who?

I'm certainly not.

Matt

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by barge:
<B>Are you taking the P155 ???

[/quote]

Sorry Barge, didn't realise you didn't handle very well!

 

John, it's a MY97 uk car. Recently been serviced and everything checked out.
Is Powerstation the only place that does the bumpsteer mod?
Everyone raves about the scooby being able to beat faster cars when it comes to the twisty bits but I am beginning to doubt this somewhat!
What else will improve the handling?
I changed the std 15" wheels to 17" and noticed a complete change in handling characteristics (for the worse)!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers
Jason

 

ahhhhhhhhhh
I used to have standard 15"s and got occasional bit of understeer but since I got my nice Prodive 17"'s with Pzeros (Thanks again ChrisP) I've been glued 2 the road and I bottle it WAY before the car.

er.. just read ur last post...
Must be something wrong IMHO (unless ur used 2 F1 cars ) as stated here maybee its the Geometry or shocks. PPL seem to rave about the difference even when they didn't think there was a problem.

[This message has been edited by Dizzy (edited 28 September 2001).]

 

Hi Jason

I also own a MY97 and used to own a Williams 3. The ***** is very good around corners, very nimble and predictable (if you take advantage of lift off oversteer), but the scoob can exit the bend alot quicker.

Going round a roundabout on half power both cars would break away at the same point but put your foot down and let the 4wd dig in and bye bye *****!

Mine had a race spec ecu (by BBR) and apparently pushed out 190BHP, (they used my car to make the re-vamp chip) and no cat, and it would give a standard UK a good run in the twisties.

Cheers


Iain

 

Cheers Iain,
That is exactly how it was, coming out of the bend and getting the power down caught him easily. Coming into the bend and round it caused me concern, should I have just kept my foot planted and wait for it to grip again?
Does anybody do a modification for bigger *****??

Jason

 

Jason,

Just ease the power in after the apex of the bend and watch the Williams get smaller and smaller.

Cheers


Iain

PS I'm sure you could get someone in Harley Street to carry out your modification

 

Jason,
I'm in the same boat as you but with the standard 15" wheels still. I am really considering going down the 17" route as I'd always thought this would improve the handling ten fold. I guess this assuption is wrong.

What 17" wheels did you go for?. have you got a before and after shot of your car? :-)

Matt

 

Cheers Diablo!
I'll have to check out Asda car park!!
Are geometry settings something a main dealer can do? If not any suggestions?

Jason

 

You mean "unsprung weight" - the lower the unsprung weight, the more able the suspension is to keep the wheels on the ground as they have less inertia.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by jaycee:
<B>A friend of mine kept muttering something about the heavier wheel affecting the "sprung rate" or something like that but I ignored him and carried on polishing 'em!

Jason[/quote]

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by blf21:
<B>You mean "unsprung weight" - the lower the unsprung weight, the more able the suspension is to keep the wheels on the ground as they have less inertia.

[/quote]
I knew it was something like that!

 

Unsprung weight is INCREDILBY important.. or rather "he ratio between the prung and un-sprung weight".. the greater the better.

Also.. in *some* cases, larger wheels will reduce un-sprung weight as the added weight gained by the wheel is less than the reduced weight from the smaller tyre sidewall.

re: just keeping it planted..

Definitely not..

AWD cars require a totally different technique, and do suffer from many understeer characteristics, but...

if you keep it nailed until you run out of road and then lift off, you are putting yourself in the absolute classic "lift-off-oversteer" situation which could spell disaster.

Scoobs are indeed incredibly quick a-b cars, but need to be driven correctly.

I would suggest getting the geometry checked by a really good garage like powerstation and then possibly driver training from someone like Don Palmer who can help you get the most out of the AWD set-up.

All the best

Simon

 

Just gone from 15's to 17's and all I can say is WOW. No understeer at the mo, cornering is unbelievable and before on certain corners the car would feel as if it were on tip toes and may roll. So far that has been banished. An upgrade to 17's IMO is almost essential.

P.

 

Jaycee,
There's a place in Ilkley that does the geom settings & is recommended (thanks Ian) although I haven't got round to having mine done yet. Group buy coming up?
My 17"s grip better & feel more secure (goodyear vs potenza)
Mail me for info
Cheers
Ste

 

I was reading on IWOC last night that Bridgestone SO2's need to be run in for about 1000 miles, having only done about 250 on mine would this account for poor grip round corners from the front end?

Jason

 

thread resurrection: please can you give me details of this place in Ilkley that do GEOMETRY SET UP, I am in West Yorkshire, but trying to find a place near me is proving pretty difficult.

 

longest resurrection ever?

 

Try Scoobyclinic, Carnetix or Powerstation.
If you want it done PROPERLY, you have to go to the people who know the cars.

 

geometry makes a BIG difference. my 93 wrx handled like a boat untill i had adjustable camber bolts fitted and full 4 wheel alignment.