OK, have just found that scooby (STi3 Wagon) has a taste for going straight on! Roads that I do 2-3 times a week, no obvious really slippy stuff, not particularly high speeds (compared to sometimes)... What do I look at?

Tyres (Eagle F1s) seem to still have plenty of tread. Pressures OK.
Tracking recently checked/set up - was OK to start with so not down to this - and I haven't hit anything since!

Not really sure what else to look at?

Neil.

 

Go slower round corners?!?!

Seriously though, a good geometry set up goes a long way to reducing understeer.

 

LOL! If I go any slower, I'll stop! Well alright not quite, but the others will catch me!

Should perhaps of made it clearer - I used to go round them much quicker, just seems to have lost the ability recently!

 

Have you just fitted new tyres?

The F1s can take up to 1000 miles to fully settle down. Changed my tryes in December, and they have only just started to grip properly!

Has there been a recent diesel spill on the road?

 

Scoobs do have a tendancy to understeer and you need to be thinking about things such as weight transfer into the corners. Loading up the front via lift -off at turn in, getting the back light, hitting apex with a balanced throttle and then getting back on full power. A good geo setup (by Powerstation perhaps) will help.

Have a look also at trail braking into corners as this really helps swing the back end out a bit and then around. This is all dependant of course on your experience and ability and really ought to be practiced safely ( ).

 

Drive an MY00 Wagon running F1s and I've found this winter to be particularly "understeery" myself. Sure I've seen an article in a bike mag saying that some councils have changed their roadsalt formula which makes it's slippier.

 

Fit a Whiteline 22mm rear adjustable anti roll bar and some uprated drop links and wave bye bye to nasty understeer Have a look in the suspension forum for (lots) more details.

 

Although your tracking maybe ok, your geometry setting s maybe out. Get yourself down to a scoob specialist to have the geometry set. This may increase tyre wear though.
I had mine down at Power Engineering, £125. Was a different car afterwards.
Then I upgraded to lightweight rota redline alloys and toyo T1-S tyres, which again, greatly improved grip.

 

Whiteline 22mm adj rear bar transforms the handling characterics, I have fitted most of the respected supension mods, Whitleine arb frnt & rear, sdrop links, anti lift, rear camber mod, bump steer mod, eibach progressive springs, strut brace, lower front brace, rear brace (wagon) and the two thing that most notably changed the car were the rear roll barand having the geometry set to full prodive settings, both made big improvements.
If starting again I think i would probably just change the bar and get the settings done. (lower springs do make it look cool!)

 

Hi Neil,

As JTaylor already posted, it is all about driving technique. Before modding your car (provided it is setup well as you stated) adapt your driving style to the car, "driver tuning" so to say. Try J's suggestion. This will have a great effect at cost zero and is big fun, too.

Patrick

 

geometry is the key - get it sorted by a specialist and it will transform it for around £100

I had mine done at TSL in Nottingham and it is a different car now