I didn't really experience any understeer there - it was far more noticeable on the tighter turns, like the sharp right-hander right before the finish, and the pivot cone at the end of the slalom. However, I was bouncing against the revlimiter pretty much on all the sweepers (and through the offset gates on the north end of the course), so I don't think I was quite at the traction limit for my given speed through those parts.
I did have to anticipate for it a little bit, though. On the offset gates before we crossed over the grass, and the tight turns I mentioned in the first paragraph, a little throttle lift or slight brush of the brakes seemed to help the front end bite a lot more.
This setup definitely has its tradeoffs. I know I have to anticipate what the car is going to do a lot more now. In the past I would just point it where I wanted it to go and then react to it and correct for it if it got a little loose. Doing that now would probably just result in a lot of push.
On the other hand, I find I can brake a lot deeper into the corners with this setup, as I no longer worry as much about the car coming around on me during trailbraking. In fact, during one afternon run I came into the slalom way too hot, started braking as I passed the first slalom cone and continued braking through the next two slalom cones, all the while expecting the car to step out sideways at any moment. It never did. Last season, doing the exact same thing at exactly the same speed would have resulted in a spectacular spin.
The tranistional benefit is amazing, at least on my car. I've always been tentative in transitional manuvers, as my car has always been just "this close" to coming around. Now it just flies. If I find it understeering a little bit, a quick throttle lift tucks the nose back in perfectly, without enticing the back end into coming around.
To put it another way, no matter how out of shape I got in Saturday, or how hot I came into different parts of the course, my car never got loose. It never hung the tail out at all - not once. That's never happened in my car. On the flip side, it does tend to understeer occasionally, but correcting for that is a lot easier, and has a lot less potential for disaster than correcting for oversteer. In addition, I found my confidence level went up dramatically in the transitional elements, as my car never threatened to bite me at all. I think as I relearn to drive it this way, it's only going to get faster, as the handling has become a lot more "goof proof" than it used to be.
Iain
