Bob the "is it me or is it the car" is fairly easy to sort out. It's a case of "doctor it hurts when I do this".......so don't do that.
Most folks at the club level spend years driving at some degree of stab and steer........you know stand it on the nose braking or stuff in throttle or wheel inputs not realizing they've caused unintended weight transfer. Poping off the break pedal is the most common hurdle........unloads the nose. It takes a long time to get the hang of easing off the brakes at the same rate as you wind in the steering and unwinding the wheel at the same rate you feed in the throttle.
So back to the car understeers: when...........just as I come off the brakes.........ok trail braking a little longer will keep weight forward so understeer is gone. If the laps times went way down it's driver, if the lap times slightly improved but your still seconds off..........time to adjust the car especially if your times are inconsistent. Biggest indicator of driver induced car problem is someone thowing parts at the problem and running some wacky set up.


I steer with the pedals and tend to be the king of trail braking.........which works great until I get in a Kart. Then I enter corners right on the tail of friends who've won national championships...........only to have the Kart jump sideways and lose 5 feet on corner exit.................I can adjust the Kart to where it hooks up but that makes a marginal differance in lap time. SO after 5 or 6 laps I unlearn trail braking and instantly pick a ton of time.


When I ran the single seater my buddy who engineered it had to get me to think set up..........if the car wasn't handling properly I'd instantly drive around it. I'll always remember his words "don't take this as an insult or a failing but you have so much innate car control that you adapt instantly without ever thinking about changing the car" That got me to start analyzing at a much higher level while driving through corners. You can't fix what you don't truly understand. Best example is Pro weekends vs. Club level. Hang around pro weekends and you'll hear nothing but talk of set up. Fast Club guys will do the same but you will hear the rest talk about lines etc.

A note on tires pressures............air is a spring (air bag suspesnsion) higher pressure means stiffer spring rate. Cars without Aero grip rely on mechanical grip and a slightly soft set up builds mechanical grip (rain races everbody runs full soft).

One final note Bob............despite 20 years of road racing bikes and cars plus 10 years of instructing,some of it so called professionally (read I got a paycheck) if I were to ever win the megalottojackpot and race more seriously I would employ a driving coach as well as an engineer.

Tom