Understeer and oversteer

As a control of a vehicle is referred to as the slip angle of the rear wheels is greater than the slip angle of the front wheels, that is, the rear of the vehicle breaks (i.e., in a curve outwards spin ). We use the word also to characterize the self-steering behavior of vehicles. The opposite behavior is called understeer.

Vehicles that are known for early oversteer, the VW Beetle and various series of Porsche sports cars ( the 911 especially the models GT2 and GT3, such as the 356 and ), so rear-wheel drive vehicles with rear engine and thus a high load on the are rear axle.

The natural tendency to want to drive a vehicle, " more curve" as introduced controls on the steering wheel, applies in principle to be less safe compared to understeer. For control purposes, overriding some practice in the appropriate driving techniques is an overshoot procedure to be able to check by hand requires. Electronic systems such as the Electronic Stability Program ( ESP) counteract the oversteer by targeted, automatic braking intervention. Oversteer is corrected by braking the outside front wheel without that the driver needs to intervene.