>Does a car that tends towards understeer
>tend to put in faster lap times?
I can't see how.
A car that can oversteer at will and can be made to stop oversteering at
will is a joy to autocross.
Best you usually can hope for is a car which has near-perfect balance in a
continuous curve. Error towards slight oversteer. Such a car can be made
to oversteer with a throttle lift and will probably understeer with too much
acceleration (wheelspin-induced oversteer is another animal entirely, and is
seldom the fast ticket).
Understeer is never really a goal in autocross, but you will probably need
to live with some in some conditions to have a setup that works well under
other conditions.
Now, for fun driving on big tracks (I don't engage in that sport), I'd want
more understeer and less oversteer than for autocrossing in a parking lot.
Since oversteer naturally increases in faster (more gradual) curves, the
fast setup for autocross may be a little twitchy on the street and downright
frightening on 10/10ths runs on a big road-race track.
I can't give you a lot of Stock-category setup tips for your 1st gen RX-7,
but I can tell you that eliminating all oversteer on an RX-7 for autocross
probably would be counterproductive.
I wish I could give you a better analysis from the time I spent in the
shotgun seat of your car. I don't recall thinking that the setup/balance of
the car was that far out of whack, but it is difficult for me to say without
driving it.
I do recall that the times I have driven stock 1st gen RX-7 cars in
autocross conditions that I was impressed with their balance.
I suggest you find an autocross driver either in Iowa or Minnesota who can
evaluate the car for you. It usually does not take that much
arm-twisting...
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Chev Suburban
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"If I can do it, it's not art" - Red Green
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