Gearing and turn in

Ok, I’m very confused by something and was hoping someone could shed some light on it. I’ve been going around trying to set PBs on every track in D class. So, I’ve been pushing the cars a little harder than I normally would. One thing I just don’t understand is why cars seems to turn in better when they are in a higher gear. There’s the one turn and I take it at like 100 MPH in a Celica on Alps Festival. Well 4th gear in that car will go to 110 normally. Yet, the car won’t make this one turn unless I shift into 5th gear. If I leave it in 4th while doing 100mph, it understeers and doesn’t come all the way around. If I shift to 5th and still go 100 mph at the beginning of the turn, it makes the turn with ease. I then have to shift back to 4th after the turn is over though. That’s just one example. I have the same issues in my Mini, Corvette and Chevelle, so I really don’t think its a car specific thing. For whatever reason, I never really noticed it until today. Am I imagining it?

Its really not a big deal, but I don’t get it at all and would really like to understand why. Anyone?

With a FWD car you are experiencing higher revs which mean more wheelspin. In FWD your wheels are trying to both power the car and turn at the same time. This creates understeer (torque steer) in the vehicle. At a higher gear you will experience less wheel spin and lower rpm’s allowing you to turn the car, sometimes at the cost of putting power to the ground.

Try 50-70% throttle if you have to take it in a higher gear. Sweepers are especially tricky.

As for the Corvette and Chevelle it sounds like an understeer issue. At higher revs those cars should want to break loose more sharply and oversteer. Sounds like you have a problem with understeer in the car which could be the differential, roll bars, springs, damping, or even something simple like too much tire width in relation to the front.

It’s the result of your differential settings with respect to the difference between the applied HP/torque at two different engine rpm settings (low rpm in 5th, high rpm in 4th for the same road speed).