Tire Pressure

[san rensho]

Originally Posted by stephen wilson

That's the odd thing, everyone says it will reduce understeer, but I just didn't find that to be the case. It did help make the intitial turn-in more crisp, but still ended in terminal understeer, which was actually worse than before.

So it did turn faster with higher tire pressure in the front? Yes , with a stock suspension, it will understeer when really pushed to the limits, but a good crisp turn in is what you want.

[Jittsl]

Stephen,

What he said ^

Try playing a couple of pounds up or down front or rear - preferably in a repeatable situation. Don't expect miracles however. These cars are designed with terminal understeer in mind.

I do not know anything about you or your driving skill level so please read this as nothing more than my opinion on how to deal with the "terminal understeer" associated with the Boxster.

No amount of tire pressure adjusting will overcome the understeer on its own. Learning advanced driving skills may however. These cars handle extraordinarily in the right hands and a little throttle off induced oversteer followed by a controlled application of judicious throttle will completely overcome the understeer if you are brave. If you are currently finding that the car is simply plowing when you try to go through a corner then I would be almost certain that you are running in a little quick, turning in and getting on the throttle a little too early and expecting it to do something different to what it did last time. Try running up to the apex under a gentle trail brake waiting for the steering to bite while the weight is still on the nose and then once the tail starts to naturally come around (as it will) get on the throttle hard enough to keep the tail slipping. The result will be a quite natural feeling oversteer. In this respect the Boxster is not terribly different from any Porsche. Slow in, careful transition from brake to throttle, fast out.

If all of the above means little or nothing go and spend some time at the PCAs DE program.

[stephen wilson]

Well, if I didn't have other areas demanding my $$$ right now, the best solution would be a pair of adjustable anti-roll bars. I do have racing experience in a Formula Ford, and was using a very long exit ramp as a skid pad for "testing". It's long enough to pretty much eliminate any transient affects. overall the balance is almost where I want it since I've gone to a 245/265 setup. It would likely oversteer if I ran it on a track, since I'm "tuning" for the slower corners I like to play on ( 2nd gear tops ).

[springer123]

I have the 17 inch rims with 205/50's and 255/40's and I run 29 psi in the front and 36 psi in the rear for regular street riding. This works for me.