Originally posted by Cracker78
Just a curious thought, but I was always under the assumption that one would want as small a turning radius as possible. What is the motivation behind having a turning radius of any size other than the smallest?
Cracker,
In addition to making the car very twitchy as rayhuang mentioned earlier, you'll find that too much steering throw will actually reduce the amount of steering at high speeds. There's an optimum steering angle beyond which the front tires won't develop any more side force, they'll just scrub instead. You'll have to get slower for the car to turn with the extra throw, the tires at that point are acting more like plows than tires.
In mod racing, this will cause a loss of corner speed and you'll have to drive harder on the straights to keep up. Usually you have to drive harder enough that you dump at 7 minutes or so.
In stock racing you just lose 3 or 4 tenths per lap because with everyone having essentially the same horsepower, the guys who can carry more speed thru the corner carry more speed out of the corner and down the straights.
When you get a chassis working well with less steering throw, you're on your way to the A.
T