This doubt came to my mind when i first watched the Top Gear's analysis to the Renault Clio Sport 182, a car i fell in love with from the first time i saw it :lovies3d:. I've seen one or two cruising around here, but only now i managed to see its full power, here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQ90RPJZVI). But by watching it, i noticed this clio has a tendency to lift the inner rear wheel when cornering, like the first Golf GTI, but now i got confused with it.

Is 3 wheel cornering an advantage or a disadvantage when competing? and if it is a disadvantage, what needs to be done to a car in order to correct this behaviour? and most important, is it safe?

ps: yes, Top Gear starts with loads of faults to the clio, and if you think like that, please watch the whole video

Many front wheel drive cars lift the inside rear wheel - this is due to insufficient front roll:rear roll stiffness - the front rolls, the rear wheels don't want to, and so get plucked into the air. It reduces the load transfer on the front (the rear obviously has 100% load transfer, considering it merely laterally rather than diagonally), which improves grip and reduces understeer...

Whilst technically it's not a good thing - a wheel in the air isn't providing any grip - the pros often (but not always) out weigh the cons.

Obviously the reality, and working out if it really is a good thing, is a whole load more complicated than a couple of short paragraphs, but it should give the idea. Or at least my understanding of it.

Same thing can happen at the front of proper cars, except it doesn't look like a peeing dog.

Proper car and driver

IIRC the new evo cocked it's wheel on gambon when it was on TG.

Its because road cars have very low anti-roll settings to keep the ride comfort up. The back happens to be stiffer so the wheel lifts. Cars with the suspension set up for racing will have a lot less body roll and so do this a lot less.