Bmw Tire Stagger

[peterkulesza]

so my 330i perf pack has stock 225 front, and 255 rear. all year the car continues to understeer at the limit, unless i break the rear with parking brake.

i recently put snow tires on, 205 on all corners.

MAN IT RULES: I HAD THE CAR IN OVERSTEER AT 70 MPH!!! this is now a perfectly balanced car, the rear gently signals it wants to come out, i correct, no lifting off, little opposite lock, INVINCIBLE !!!

whe the hell do they not come out from munich like this????

[The Deuce]

Simple.

It has been determined that understeer is the safest way to set up a car. If you dig into the bowels of the NHTSA data, you will find support for this.

If you look at the data and took a survey of what "average" drivers do in extreme situations, you would find that people over compensate for steering input. To balance that, a car set up to understeer will work better than one that is neutral or has oversteer.

This is the main reason Nader deemed the Corvair "unsafe at any speed" because of its inherent oversteer. This is also why people wreck 911's.

I know for a fact the balance in the Mustang's is set up to understeer, and would venture a bet that the Corvette and Viper are set up in a similar fashion. Fortunately, oversteer is a throttle away in these cars.

[peterkulesza]

it still bugs me.

i think this understeer setup is ok on regular bmw models and such, but if i shell out $4000 for a PERFORMANCE package, or untold thousands for an m car, i wish i did not have to spend $1000 extra and junk the oem tires..... ghead

on top of this, i have to press the button each time to deactivate this stinking DSC, so actually i CAN steer on the throttle....
, but i digress.

[The Deuce]

I would think you could order the car from BMW with a different wheel package, but I don't know how accomidating their special order people are. I know Porsche used to do custom colors if you greased the right wheels (read: $$).

It is frustrating, but at least you can turn the DSC off. The auto on is a C-Y-A move by the company, as is most passive saftey devices.

[Torque]

I'll gladly trade my E34 for your E46. My car comes with these awesome 205s and has so much power that it will oversteer anywhere, anytime. It also has no DSC, ASC or anything else.

Straight across trade ? Seems fair. Hell I'll even throw in a few grand with that.