What's the most important dynamic quality?

[SidewaysSi]

What aspect of the way a car drives that is most important to you? I am thinking throttle response etc i.e. the key driving feature a car must have for you to even consider it?

For me, steering feel and pedal positioning is key. If either is a bit off, I know I am not going to gel with the car.

Any others?

[kambites]

For me I think steering feel > spring/damping balance > throttle response.

[Krikkit]

kambites said:

For me I think steering feel > spring/damping balance > throttle response.

I think I'd say spring/damping balance > steering feel > throttle response > brake feel. Nothing puts me off a car more than a terrible ride (be it a sporty car that's too soft, or a quick(ish) normal car that's rock-hard).

[Ozzie Osmond]

I don't think there's a single answer to this question.

It's a bit like "What makes a girl attractive?". Hair? Personality? Face? Intelligence? Curves?

Personally I think the answer lies in an overall balance.

[Benbay001]

Steering feel is most important.
The thing i miss most about my old Focus.

[300bhp/ton]

SidewaysSi said:

What aspect of the way a car drives that is most important to you? I am thinking throttle response etc i.e. the key driving feature a car must have for you to even consider it?

For me, steering feel and pedal positioning is key. If either is a bit off, I know I am not going to gel with the car.

Any others?

Depends entirely on the type of car, the use and why you are buying it.

Also I'm not overly convinced when some claim about steering feel. Yes it matters, but I suspect 99% of people can't even tell the difference anyhow.

[Jacobyte]

300bhp/ton said:

I'm not overly convinced when some claim about steering feel. Yes it matters, but I suspect 99% of people can't even tell the difference anyhow.

I'd agree with this. Most "steering feel" isn't actually the sensation transmitted through the steering column, it's the way the chassis transmits the tyres/pitch/roll/yaw/etc via the seat through your body/arm/hand to the wheel. Just a soft seat can numb the overall sensations and trick you into thinking there's no steering feel.

Back to the OP: the most important dynamic quality is the bit that makes you want to drive it. That can be a different thing depending on your mood of the day, hence "dynamic".

[300bhp/ton]

Benbay001 said:

Steering feel is most important.
The thing i miss most about my old Focus.

You see this is sort of what I mean. If steering feel was really that important you wouldn't have picked a PAS fwd hatchback. And nor probably the S-Type in your profile now.

[kambites]

I'm not aiming this at anyone in particular on this thread, but if you read PH much it's clear that even on here many people don't even know what steering feel is and confuse it with steering weight.

[Herbs]

There is a difference between steering feel and steering feedback. You are both talking about two different things.

Steering feedback is what 300/BHP is taking about (chassis essentially). In an Elise you can feel all four wheels independently through your butt cheeks and what is going on.

Other cars such as the Focus may not have this but you can turn the wheel in confidence without the vague dead ahead area or variable racks.

[kambites]

Herbs said:

Other cars such as the Focus may not have this but you can turn the wheel in confidence without the vague dead ahead area or variable racks.

I wouldn't call that feel or feedback (which to me are nearly the same thing, the with "feel" being slightly broader in that it includes steady-state weighting) - what you describe is simply steering sharpness.

[stevesingo]

Harmony of the control weights, response and feedback.

A car with one particularly excellent dynamic trait can still be unsatisfying if all the other traits are poor.

See Mk1 Focus, Skoda Favourit (yes really), for good examples.

Evora is an example of the the whole spoilt by one particular aspect, the gear shift. I'm pretty sure the motoring press would give it the nod over the Cayman had the gearshift been as good as the steering.

[kambites]

stevesingo said:

Evora is an example of the the whole spoilt by one particular aspect, the gear shift. I'm pretty sure the motoring press would give it the nod over the Cayman had the gearshift been as good as the steering.

Gear change is an interesting one, because different people have different ideas of what's good. Personally, I don't like the feel of gearboxes that always slide smoothly into gear - it feels numb to me, but for some people it's the holy grail of gear shifts. I like a gearbox to complain if I don't get my rev matching right - most people would probably call that "notchy".

When driving for pleasure I adore crash-boxes - it just adds another dimension to the experience. Pain in the arse for commuting, though.

Edited by kambites on Monday 4th March 10:33

[Chris71]

SidewaysSi said:

What aspect of the way a car drives that is most important to you?

I think the most important thing is probably that it behaves consistently and progressively - you don't find that gentle understeer at low speed gives way to snap oversteer at high speed, for example, as happened with with my previous TVR before it was set up properly.

A close second is steering feel. Obviously this alone won't save you from any truly evil handling traits at the limits, but it tells you how close you are getting to breaching them.

Body control, steering precision, equal front-to-rear balance, decent throttle response and a linear power delivery are all highly desirable, but I think you can work round those more effectively than the other two.

[Otispunkmeyer]

For me 95% of the time it is refinement, good NVH qualities.

[anonymous-user]

That the relationship between handwheel inputs and yaw rate is as linear as possible.

Actual steering "feel" you can do without these days, and very very few cars have it, but being able to accurately and repeatidly place the car, across the full specturm of speed and load conditions is most important for me.

[deltashad]

I buy different cars for different reasons, and its a collective of all its qualities which make me want it.
Of all the cars I've driven though, the steering feel in the integrale's is just sublime and addictive.
So, for me I reckon it's steering communication and feel.

[rumple]

300bhp/ton said:

Benbay001 said:

Steering feel is most important.
The thing i miss most about my old Focus.

You see this is sort of what I mean. If steering feel was really that important you wouldn't have picked a PAS fwd hatchback. And nor probably the S-Type in your profile now.

Do you say that a FWD car can't have steering feel, or is it the PAS,I disagree with you, my other car is a MK1 Focus and nothing else I've owned or driven has anything like the steering feel the MK1 Focus has, my car history is mostly RWD as well, when I say Focusi mean MK1 petrol only, Diesels and MK2 's weren't as good.

[kambites]

rumple said:

Do you say that a FWD car can't have steering feel, or is it the PAS,...

Both things make it very much harder to engineer in decent steering feel, although neither makes it impossible.

The mk1 focus's steering was decent enough, but nowhere near the best unassisted RWD cars.

[zedx19]

kambites said:

Both things make it very much harder to engineer in decent steering feel, although neither makes it impossible.

The mk1 focus's steering was decent enough, but nowhere near the best unassisted RWD cars.

True, but your forgetting the Focus is an everyday car when the unassisted RWD cars you speak of will be sports cars. The Focus is better then pretty much anything in its class and better then a lot of modern so called hot hatch's.