Is anyone here aware that their car does this under heavy cornering?
If you do, how much do you lift by and what setup does your car have?
Yes I can see your point, to a point.
However if you are lifting more than an inch say, then the outside rear cannot take any more load and the remaining load transfer is being taken up by the front axle, so although you're loading up that outside front, you'll also now be unloading the inside front quicker than you would be with the inside rear on the ground, and so loosing grip and going into understeer...
...that's what you would think would happen, but there is more grip and less under steer when you see lifting during hard cornering. Its needed at low speed.
If you were to keep all 4 wheels planted on the ground, you will end up with longer track times and more under steer.
Its is the load transfer that I am pointing to..."matter of fact"Ok, but how does this work? I'm not saying you're wrong, but you kind of state it in a matter of fact way, where as I have tried to work out the physics of it and have come to the conclusion that (excessive) lifting results in understeer because of the aforementioned load transfer at the front axle.
First, the body roll front to back is not equal on civics, either its stiff in the front or in the rear, they are not 50/50 in weight distribution either and that plays on grip as well.If we assume equal roll resistance front and rear, then both axles will loose overall lateral grip at an equal rate and the car will be neutral, until the point where the inside rear lifts.
Lateral grip is not equal due to weight distribution and body roll combined during hard cornering. Plus the one wheel left in the rear still in contact with the asphalt is gaining more grip as the lifting wheel applies more downward force to the opposite rear wheel.At this point the grip from the rear becomes fixed, as no more load can be transfered off the inside wheel. With the rear grip fixed, the front continues to transfer load off the inside wheel meaning that the front axles grip continues to drop, resulting in understeer.
Downward and lateral grip will increase to the front wheels with more going to the front outside wheel. As the rear continues to lift up more weight and grip is then transferred to the front.This effect appears to be exacerbated by the fact that the load transfer is now not shared equally between front and rear axles, the front now has to deal with what would have otherwise been dealt with by the rear.
I think your missing a drivers ability to transfer weight to the front left or right prior to corner entry.If you are saying that lifting reduces understeer, which bit am I misunderstanding?
Its is the load transfer that I am pointing to..."matter of fact"
First, the body roll front to back is not equal on civics, either its stiff in the front or in the rear, they are not 50/50 in weight distribution either and that plays on grip as well.
Back to the drawing board...