I would like to reduce understeer on my E420, when I was at an autox event my car would understeer when pushed to the limit. Like my wheel would be turned and the car would go straight.
I was thinking that I could put a bigger antiroll bar in the back (or would it be the front?)
I would like to have a more neutral handling car.
Anyone know what I can do?
Subman

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2. Add roll resistance at rear (sway bar, usually)

3. More negative camber at front (hard on front tires during regular commuting)

4. More positive castor at front sometimes helps on tight autocross tracks, because it has the effect of increasing negative camber when the wheel are cramped over very sharply (may give more road feel and tendency to follow road irregularities on regular driving). I'm not sure castor is adjustable on your model.

The easiest and cheapest thing to try is to modify the tyre pressures.
Drop the Fronts 2psi at a time to get the best response.

Also try GRIPPIER tyres on the front.
Something with a heavy pattern on the shoulder.
(Town & Country type)

Ixion

Actually for autocross raising the tire pressures to at least 45 lbs would help. Also the negative camber would help BUT on the W210 chassis there are limited adjustments. However if you have W124 chassis then go to at least 1.5 deg negative camber. Also a larger front anti-sway bar would help.
I always used special compound auto-X tires & that made the biggest difference!!

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While it is true that increasing the size of the roll bar at the front should INCREASE understeer, by increasing the load transfer to the outer tire, sometimes the reduction in body roll (if you go to a really heavy bar) will reduce camber change to the point that it does actually reduce understeer, expecially if accompanied by a drastic incease in tire pressure to compensate for the load transfer. Generally, the theory is that you want to stiffen the roll resistance at the opposite end from the one at which you need more grip, in order to keep the weight better divided between the two front (in this case) wheels, but on real cars in the real world, there are a lot of other variables. And keep in mind that we are talking here mainly about transitional behavior, which is what most of autocrossing is -- what works great in an autocross could make the car very easy to spin out in situations such as 270 degree cloverleaf exits, because you need a bit of steady state understeer in order to keep the weight on the drive wheels balanced enough so that you can feed it plenty of throttle to merge.

What I loved so much about autocrossing years ago when I could afford it, was all the constant experimenting to gain a tenth of a second here and a tenth there -- an endless quest.

I don't think this would help out in autocrossing... but you know... when you feel the need to oversteer... you could always rev that big 8 cyl... I bet that would bring out the rear in a second flat

I experience the same with our 1988 360TE AMG wagon. Too much understeer.

Having the rear tire's pressure at 42 PSI and the fronts at 36 PSI, helped.

But what helped more was to have a fatter rear swaybar.

Now the rear can be induced into oversteer with the throttle more easiely.

The wagon is definitely more neutral, which while fun to drive, does deserve more restraint and a better driver to keep out of harms way.

:-) neil