Why Audi Understeers

There is a brand that gets mentioned a bit more often when it comes to the understeer and that’s Audi. Why are their cars known for understeer and others not as much?

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[Zlotac]

Almost all cars understeer by design, as it's much safer than oversteer for novice drivers. If porsche is like a hammer with the weight in the back, audis are oposite, someone once noted the example. But having driven an A6 for years i cant agree it understeers noticably. If anything, what was worrying to me was the sudden loss of grip on all tires when cornering and completely skidding to the side. The car only seemed nose heavy under winter mocking around, where i realised you need to kick the tail out before you plan it otherwise it will plow forward.

[schanche]

Let's not forget Audi's also employ 'negative offset geometry' which tends to give more understeer but in the event of a front tyre blow-out makes for a much safer outcome

[grahamnutt]

Weight and Power distribution - those are the key factors.
Excellent content as always 👍

[moc-iwnl]

Yeah this is pretty typical with Audi, the engine placement already spelled doom for handling. But definitely tuning the Quattro to be more rwd bias was the move. Also stickier tires is also a good idea to eliminate understeer

[emjaybyers]

I drive a 2013 A4 and can in fact testify understeer when stock was immense. With some bigger, high performance tires most of that was eliminated unless I really try. Back end is fairly easy to swing out. Love my B8.5 though

[Manu-Official]

Those who say that simply don't know how to kick the back out on a Quattro. Don't pussyfoot it, put your foot down.

Then I don't see any BMW/Mercedes/RWD trying whatever on the road anytime it rains, or in between September to end of April... Almost as if their ultimate driving machine is going to.... Snap oversteer and crash.

If you want to showcase real understeer, go have a look at Opel/Vauxhall, now that's something else.

[stevie-ray]

Used to own a Mini Clubman into which I did a full Cooper S conversion complete with disc-brakes (assisted by a Rover brake-booster), & widened rims & tyres. The 1310cc engine had oversize valves, rally-cam, twin 1.5" SU carbs, headers & straight-thru sports-muffler.
As it was one of the last Minis with the hydrolastic-suspension I had it pumped up & fitted shocks on the front, then to correct the camber I installed adjustable lower suspension-arms. The result was an incredibly quick Mini with enough over-steer to slide the rear out on corners when pushed, & if I hit the go-pedal in a low gear spinning the front wheels, then I'd drifting it sideways until the front tyres gained traction! Immense fun!!!

[ZG.]

People ask me how im so reliably good at sliding my Audi. The secret is to fucking send it, throw it in a corner to rotate the chassis as hard as you possibly can and pray it will grip up and pull you out of the corner. Theres like no other way if you want to do skids. Always handy to have a spare car if you wrap it around a tree🤣

[ryonbrand]

An interesting thing to note on the subject of Audi understeer is the 1991 Audi 200TQ 20v, they were a bit different, they did have a very significant front bias, but they were somehow tuned to have smooth, progressive oversteer at the very limit, as noted by Motor Week. I have one, although I’ve never pushed it that hard on pavement, it is incredibly easy to slide at speed on dirt, a decently quick steering movement is enough to make it slide.

[ThunderBassistJay]

Back in the 80's I owned a 5 cylinder Audi 90, so I know what understeering is. 😬

[brracing]

The C1 platform wasn’t from Volkswagen. The transmission layout actually came from DKW and the platform was called f102. The first car that had the AUDI name was the Audi f103 also called audi 60/75/80/90 depending on the horsepower. The next car was the first 80 (B1)

[jamesjack]

Historically, Audi puts the the engine in front of the front wheel axle. That heavy nose will always produce understeer driving.

Starting from 2009 with the A4 B8, they were able to move the front differential further up. This moved the weight balance to 55:45. It’s an improvement and couple with the Quattro power split of 40:60. It really handles very well under power.

Note that Audi tire pressure is the same front and rear. This shows they prefer neutral set up.

BMW usually runs a higher rear tire pressure. Making it keen to oversteer. And the X drive in BMW places the front diff all the way toward the front of the engine. That’s why it is still very well balanced even if it is a X drive.

[benistingray]

50/50 is best for pure handling characteristics while more rearwards balance is best for pure performance.

[hugomota]

I drove a few Audis, owned two A4 2.0 TDI, I drive in the mountains all the time due to the location of my hometown, I not a slow driver at all and...I never had this problem...

[michaelsperanza]

I have an s8 d3 (the v10 one) and i swear it’s glued on the road like on rails and on the snow it’s unstoppable and it goes really. That car has the soul

[krissgs]

All I see is 25 years old Audi A4s being insanely quick

[waelal-zubieri]

You forgot to mention that Audi introduced torque vectoring rear differential which was very innovative at the time. So it can overdrive the rear outside wheel in corners to limit understeer. This coupled with the 40/60 torque split made modern Audi handle like rear wheel drive cars while still having AWD. You just have to bold to mash the throttle mid corner. What is cool about Audi Quattro that other automakers don't have today is that there is a real limited Slip differential in the center. It can send power based on grip level. And both axles always get power. Mercedes and BMW switched to clutch based system in their cars where the front axle will engage when needed. Kinda like a reversed Haldex systems that VW uses. This works well, but it can overheat during very slippery conditions or during intense dry driving.

You also seem overly critical of the weight distribution. Any transversely engine mounted car today is worse than any modern longitudinal layout audi. This is basically most cars today since that layout is very space efficient. That doesn't prevent those cars from being fast or fun to drive. Clever engineering with the suspension and power delivery can really mask these issues. Many cars such as the GTI, Civic Type R, AMG A class all have worse weight front to rear than a modern Audi A4 AWD. They still are amazingly fun car.

[FullyLooted]

I had to tighten up my sway bars to make the understeer more controlled on my 3.2 A6. I made the mistake of upgrading the front one too which made the understeer even worse 🤡

[calbackk]

As a driver in nordic conditions I detected Audi`s heavy understeer early on, in fact even before I got my license. It is true as you say that many people will not detect or "suffer" from the understeer. But in nordic conditions which are slippery most of the year the heavy understeer of the Audis is obvious immediately. Hence, no Audi for for me.

[Eduardolo]

I had different Audis, S4 B5, S4 B6, RS4 B8 and R8 Plus. The S4 B6 understeered extremely whereby after modificstions with sport suspension, stronger stabilizers and lighter rims it was slightly better but never disappeared. Audis with V8 engines really tend to understeer, but you get used to it, a little slower into the corner and then out with full throttle.