4 wheel steering, is it any good?

Gaddy

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Hi what do you think of 4WS? does it have any advantages? From what I can tell it does the same thing as drifting but not spinning the back wheels.
 
having ever experianced it myself but been in a wagon with it. the idea is to allow bigger cars to have better and more responsive turning.

cant see the likness to drifting however
 
Most cars have some sort of passive rear steer built into the bushes on the suspension, allowing a certain amount of movement when under lateral cornering.
 
Honda's system worked very well in the Preludes. It counter steered at low speed for enhanced manoeuverability and steered with the front (but only to a small degree) at high speed, for stability.

Renault's latest Laguna is reported to have a very good system as well. I have not driven one so cannot comment.
 
Yeah I thought it was a bit like drifting in the fact that at high speeds it would "swing the back out" giving it slightly more over steer. I still have to test it because my sensors are faulty so it engaged straight lock. I don't know as to whether it adjust the direction of the wheels or gave a bit more camber (lean in the tires).
 
Well seeing as it is a good thing, even though it may be more subtle or passive now days, how come it had plenty of hipe in the 90's but isn't such a big thing now?
 
Passive rear wheel steering, or lateral rear suspsension compliance has been use for a long time.

Citroen used to use fully active suspension systems many years ago for all its cars. Even back into the 1960s. Way ahead of its time.

The ZX, launched in 1988, uses conventional suspension. Citroen built in some passive rear wheel steering and the press lauded praise upon the car for its tidy handling and sheer grip.

Many journalists were eager to trash Citroen for failing to use it's own Oleo-Pneumatic system in the ZX. They didn't.

I think that Honda possibly went overboard with the rw steering. It wasn't strictly necessary as the cars were capable and handled well anyway.

Honda's system could give a very strange feel to the car's direction at low speed.

I could feel as if you were trying to drift and hang out the back end at parking speeds (sub 5mph)!

At high speed the system points the rear wheels in the same direction as the front ones, although to a much smaller degree. The idea was to maintain stability during a high speed and sudden lane change on a motorway, for example.

It worked very well indeed.

My only concern is this - if you need to make regular and sudden lane changes at 3 figure speeds then perhaps you should re-assess your driving and observation skills.

That said, IT WORKS, and does so brilliantly.
 
I don't think you'll find a 4ws rear wheel drive car.

I suppose now we just let the ESP deal with any stability issues as it's cheaper to do this than fit a car with rear steering equipment.

This is why 4wd in road cars is diappearing - traction control is cheaper.
 
I've driven a couple of Honda Prelude VTECS with the system and it does work well. At low speed it feels really strange.

At high speed the cars are very stable even in a savage lane change move. However, I've not driven a non 4ws Prelude so can't really comment. And I've also driven numerous cars that out-handle the Prelude anyway so perhaps it's not really necessary.
 
Don't think me pedantic, I was more thinking out loud and fishing for an answer than criticising your comment.

Either way it wasn't much of a contribution to the original post... I'm just trying to pass the time until I can go home lol.
 
I see what you mean with the drifting similarity, i have thought to myself before the same question (if 4 wheel steering would give better traction than front wheel steering)

The answer is no, because if it was any good, race cars would use it. !

however, it does give you a great advantage in parking and low speed manoeuvrability, since your turning circle is much smaller.
 
I suspect the reason race cars don't use it is because of a: regulations, especially with F1.

Secondly, in a Group A rally car, for example, it's far too fragile.

Add to that, even in F1, can you imagine trying to articulate the rear end when it's got to deliver 1000bhp to the roadwheels.

4WS works superbly. That manoeuvering is questionable. People have clipped cars reversing whilst driving car with 4ws.

But then I've driven plenty of cars with standard front steering (OK, lot's have some passive RWS built in - Citroen's ZX was one of the earliest mass market examples) that still handle superbly.

If you want a quantitive assessment then go and drive a current Micra. They corner ridiculously well.

You'll have blood coming out of your ears before you find the lateral limit in the dry.

Just a shame that the driver profile for a Micra never gets to find out!!!
 

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