The just unveiled FK8 Honda Civic Type R has to be a headline grabbing hot hatch. The 310 PS and 400 Nm of torque pumped out by the 2.0 litre turbocharged VTEC 4 cylinder is a stuff of madness. Its front-wheel drive Nurburgring lap record is testament to its performance credential that will have enthusiasts worldwide drooling.
Speaking of front-wheel drive, there's one inherent problem in sending prodigious amount of output solely to the front wheels - torque steer. Torque steer is basically a result of having the front wheels doubling as the powered and steered wheels. The introduction of copious torque to the front wheels introduce leverage against the front wheels allowing the car to be steered under the influence of torque.
For example, if you floor the throttle and the steering wheel tugs to one side without any input from you, you have torque steer.
Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained explained the cause of torque steer in one of his video. Some of the points he outlined are unequal length half shafts being the main culprit, with road conditions and tyre wear being taken into consideration as well.
He also stressed particularly on steering geometry which directly influence parameters such as scrub radius and spindle length. Scrub radius is basically an imaginary distance between the centreline of the wheels and the steering axis where it intersects the ground; spindle length is an imaginary distance between the steering axis and the exact centre of the wheel centreline.
Fenske showed how Honda has setup the front suspension in such a way that the steering axis is placed within the tyre as he explained. The resultant configuration lends to the reduction in scrub radius and spindle length, all which contributes to less torque steer.
Such innovation is not unique to Honda however, as manufacturers such as Renault PerfoHub, Ford RevoKnuckle and GM HiPerStrut achieved similar goals in the reduction of torque steer by making the scrub radius, and by extension, spindle length smaller.
Let Fenske explain the whole mumbo-jumbo in greater details in the video below.
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