Oversteer?

I recently bought a '02 C4 Cab with stock 17" wheels and Conti tires. This is my first Porsche and I've never done a driving school (hopefully will soon), so please excuse the newbie quality to this question. When cornering, as soon as I apply throttle, the car takes a wider line than expected. It doesn't feel like understeer (if that means that the front tires are not getting traction). Is this normal? Is this unique to the C4? What causes it? I assume change in the geometry of the suspension as the tail drops under power? Any thoughts would be appreciated, including comments on my driving style if that is the problem! Thanks.

You can control the line of the car by throttle steering through a turn. As you give the car more gas it shifts more weight to the back of the car and less to the front making the contact patch on the front tires smaller therefore reducing traction. If you simply easy off a little on the throttle weight will be shifted forward increasing the traction on the front tires, making your car take a tighter line. You are felling a slight amount of understeer, if it were oversteer your turn would be tighter than you expected and your rear end would likely break loose. Understeer= loose turn oversteer= tight turn, that is a very broad statement but is basically holds true. All of the 996 experience a significant amount of understeer from the factory this is a safety measure placed on the cars by the factory. Understeer is much safer for inexperienced drivers because the natural response is to slow down and that is also the correct response. I do not own a C4 so I do not know the handling differences but the same basic principles apply to all cars. Hope that helps. -Andrew Wolf

Different driving styles for a P-car than a front wheel drive car like you seem to be used to. What you are describing is indeed understeer. Good way to take a turn in a 996 is to start slow from the turning point and accelerate from the apex all the way to the exit. P-cars are dialed for understeer from the factory as this way, if you feel that you are going to fast, you lift off and settle the car... Hope this helps. In recommend you get the Skip Barber book going faster

Thanks for the responses and suggestions. I'll be in Las Vegas soon and plan on attending a driving school. Too bad I won't be able to do it in my own car. BTW, I meant understeer, but got it reversed in the subject line. Oops. Thanks again.