Handling

[thewilly]

What does it mean to you? Is it grip, balance, feel, the ability to put the car exactly where you want it?

Is it a tangible thing? Can it be measured by means of lap times, g forces or apex speed? Moose test even?

An Elise for example will slide at a lower speed then a GTR? But which car handles better? (mx5?)

Is 'Handling' a term invented by the motoring press merely to express an individual character or mix of attributes of vehicular dynamic which cannot be communicated easily by the written, or spoken word?

Answers on a postcard

[Mr Gear]

Balance and feel I'd say. Not ultimate grip or corner speed.

I think a good handling car is one that gives you confidence in what it's doing and where the limit is.

[The Wookie]

I'd say chassis balance and response

[heebeegeetee]

Mr Gear said:

Balance and feel I'd say. Not ultimate grip or corner speed.

I think a good handling car is one that gives you confidence in what it's doing and where the limit is.

I'd go with that. It's how the car feels, how much you feel, and how well-balanced it is.

[300bhp/ton]

Handling is a blend of things for me. Balance, feel and control. Grip does have a part but it is something else IMO. E.g a Series Land Rover can handle well despite not actually taking corners at huh speed. But it's predictable and easy to place, has loads of feedback and feels great.

[HellDiver]

Not wanting to put you off the road in to a feiry ball of death is what it means to me.

[Herbs]

I've always seen handling as "human interaction" ie: the ability to handle the car.

It not just about how high the limits of the car are, it's also how controllable and progressive it is near the edge - which is why a MX5 is so highly rated despite there being a fair few cars that can out corner it.

[Mr Gear]

300bhp/ton said:

Handling is a blend of things for me. Balance, feel and control. Grip does have a part but it is something else IMO. E.g a Series Land Rover can handle well despite not actually taking corners at huh speed. But it's predictable and easy to place, has loads of feedback and feels great.

Likewise, an Audi TT has loads of grip and will handle high corner speeds, but little feedback from the steering would mean you can't really call it good handling.

[acf8181]

Handling is how a car feels on the limit

Road holding is how much grip a car has

[Herman Toothrot]

How much it communicates with you on the limit of grip, letting you know when it will slide and once you have passed that point how easy it is to remain in control.

The best two cars I have ever driven for this are the VX220 and the MX5. Hence they are the cars I have kept and have no intention of ever selling.

The MX5 is king of being able to be controlled once sliding and the VX220/Elise king of feedback and knowing where you are on the limit.

VX220/Elise also have amazingly high limits in the first place given by grip, the chassis makes the most of the tyres. My MX5 needs R888's to grip as well as my VX on road tyres.

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Monday 1st November 16:40

[anonymous-user]

It's actually pretty simple to define "handling":

A car that "handles" is one where the cars response to any driver input is the response that driver expected. i.e, no suprises.
A car that oversteers like it's got shopping trolley wheels on the back can have good "handling" as long as it ALWAYS does that. If 1 time out of 10 that extreme oversteer is replaced by understeer, the drivers confidence in the car doing exactly what he wanted is diminished.

That means that the car doesnt have to be fast, or grippy, or even "balanced" as such, but it must be repeatable under all circumstances ;-)

[Marf]

Balance, predictability and communication.

[300bhp/ton]

acf8181 said:

Handling is how a car feels on the limit

Road holding is how much grip a car has

not sure it's just on the limit. Sure that's part of it and a very distinct part of handling. But there's a while raft of ability or lack of ability before that point. Eg something like an MGF or MR2 MkII handle really nicely within their normal limits, but both can really bite when you push past them.

[Mr Gear]

Max_Torque said:

It's actually pretty simple to define "handling":

A car that "handles" is one where the cars response to any driver input is the response that driver expected. i.e, no suprises.
A car that oversteers like it's got shopping trolley wheels on the back can have good "handling" as long as it ALWAYS does that. If 1 time out of 10 that extreme oversteer is replaced by understeer, the drivers confidence in the car doing exactly what he wanted is diminished.

That means that the car doesnt have to be fast, or grippy, or even "balanced" as such, but it must be repeatable under all circumstances ;-)

Disagree to an extent. My Corsa always understeers, and it always fells numb and is predictably harsh and crashy on bumpy corners.

It's still handles like st, no matter how predictable it is.

[Gad-Westy]

300bhp/ton said:

acf8181 said:

Handling is how a car feels on the limit

Road holding is how much grip a car has

not sure it's just on the limit. Sure that's part of it and a very distinct part of handling. But there's a while raft of ability or lack of ability before that point. Eg something like an MGF or MR2 MkII handle really nicely within their normal limits, but both can really bite when you push past them.

Yeah this certainly applies to the S1 Elise which is often regarded as one of the finest handling cars of all time and yet also has a reputation for biting hard at the limit. Same applies to older 911's.

[BeeRoad]

Handling is what happens when you run out of grip.

[300bhp/ton]

Max_Torque said:

It's actually pretty simple to define "handling":

A car that "handles" is one where the cars response to any driver input is the response that driver expected. i.e, no suprises.
A car that oversteers like it's got shopping trolley wheels on the back can have good "handling" as long as it ALWAYS does that. If 1 time out of 10 that extreme oversteer is replaced by understeer, the drivers confidence in the car doing exactly what he wanted is diminished.

That means that the car doesnt have to be fast, or grippy, or even "balanced" as such, but it must be repeatable under all circumstances ;-)

Don't agree with any of that.

[Edmundo2]

heebeegeetee said:

Mr Gear said:

Balance and feel I'd say. Not ultimate grip or corner speed.

I think a good handling car is one that gives you confidence in what it's doing and where the limit is.

I'd go with that. It's how the car feels, how much you feel, and how well-balanced it is.

I'd go with Mr.Gear + heebeegeetee on this.

Something that is balanced, responsive, consistant, catchable, rewarding. Also needs to respond well to throttle/brake inputs not just steering, ( everyone seems to talk about, "how well my car turns in" etc..therefore it handles well, however they fail to mention that it struggles to put power down efficiently and that when you want to get on it it actually doesn't handle very well at all, it either just understeers or oversteers but never both at the same time in a balanced manner ). )

[anonymous-user]

300bhp/ton said:

Max_Torque said:

It's actually pretty simple to define "handling":

A car that "handles" is one where the cars response to any driver input is the response that driver expected. i.e, no suprises.
A car that oversteers like it's got shopping trolley wheels on the back can have good "handling" as long as it ALWAYS does that. If 1 time out of 10 that extreme oversteer is replaced by understeer, the drivers confidence in the car doing exactly what he wanted is diminished.

That means that the car doesnt have to be fast, or grippy, or even "balanced" as such, but it must be repeatable under all circumstances ;-)

Don't agree with any of that.

wow, difficult audience tonight! lol!!

[anonymous-user]

Mr Gear said:

Disagree to an extent. My Corsa always understeers, and it always fells numb and is predictably harsh and crashy on bumpy corners.

It's still handles like st, no matter how predictable it is.

What you mean is "The way i drive my car it always understeers" it's perfectly possible to drive your car and make it oversteer. For the massive majority of the motoring public (whom, i think you'll find are the target corsa audience) a significantly understeering balance is a VERY good thing.

It would be very bad if one out of 100 times when arriving on the brakes at say a roundabout, it suddenly snapped into massive oversteer!!!!


So in summary, your car handles fine, but has a poor primary ride and an understeer dominated limit balance behaviour.....