Toe

 

Car suspension Toe

/--\ = negative toe/ Toe In (view from Top of car)
\--/ = positive toe/ Toe Out (view from Top of car)

 

Negative toe on the rear wheels will stop oversteer because the wheels are at this angle /--\ (looking from the top of the car). That's great for corners but reduces acceleration on the exits and straights because there isn't as much tire contact to the ground as a zero toe like this |--| .

So as you can see there is a compromise.

Quick physics lesson. Looking at the diagram above ... when going around a left hand corner the weight of the car leans to the right two tires. The negative front toe makes the car turn sharper left, while the positive toe rear swings the rear further out to the right, making the car point left into the left hand corner.

The compromise of fixing understeering or oversteering using toe adjustments is that tire wear will increase. There is always a compromise in every adjustment, we don't live in a perfect world. Engineers always try to reduce oversteer and understeer using adjustments to springs, shocks, stabilizers and wings first. Only think about toe adjustments as a last resort, since any toe value added will increase tire wear.

 

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Some useful links:

- f1technical.net, , a great site with a lot of technical information’s and explanations. Site is updated daily with news from F1 word.

 - autosport.com, This site is a legend. A bible for racing lovers. News from all around the word. Unfortunately, to get access to all news, interviews and to open the site completely you should be subscribed to Autosport magazine. Anyway, great read.

 - f1network.net, Good read. Fan’s from every team can find his team forum. For me, like Ferrari fan, forum is the best Ferrari forum, very visited, with great threads.

 - Ferrarif1forum.com is another great Ferrari site for Ferrari fan’s like me. Site is relatively new, but great fun, with great discussion, news and Ferrari F1 car Development topic. Twitter and Facebook are also there.

 - f1.gpupdate.net, Site with fresh news from Formula 1

 - planetf1, another site with many different articles, news and statistics. Biased toward British teams, but anyway good read.

 - gurneyflap.com, Great history site. You can learn a lot from this site. Pictures, cars and many many more. Great.

 - fia.com, La Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, representing the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. Head organisation and ruler in auto sport.

 - wikipedia.org, I don’t believe that I have to tell you anything about this site. It’s not about Formula 1 technology, but you can learn a lot about that too.

 - suttonimages.com. source of great images from autosport

 - carbibles.com, a great site for normal car users. Here you can find explanations of almost everything about your car and how it works. Technical reviews and explanations of some in-car gadgets.