can heavy cars handle well?

[pitbull turbo]

hi. im going through a stage where i have had to buy a family car with the arrvial on my son and i ended up buying a mazda6 mps.
now the car is 256bhp even though most push out more than this standard and it has 4wd and is a really nice place to sit in, my only really complaint is it a touch slow compared to what im used to and feels a bit soft and wollowy.
now i would love to get some better brakes/ suspension and up the power a bit but im worried that because the car is such a lump(1600kg+) i will just still be looking for more as the car is just to big and heavy.
but then loads of people think there m5/rs4 /rs6 and so on are great even though they weight even more.
so question is should i bother extracting more out my car or wait until i can get something smaller and lighter again?

[derestrictor]

Absolutely.

E39 M5, what else?

The phrase 'disguises bulk' has never been more apt.

[HellDiver]

How big is your son that you can't get him in to something like a Focus?

[markmullen]

You can throw a Cayenne Turbo S around like it is a much smaller car.

[Superhoop]

markmullen said:

You can throw a Cayenne Turbo S around like it is a much smaller car.

This ^^

Didn't the Cayenne Turbo lap a UK race circuit in the same time as an Evo when it was launched?

And the Cayenne has to more than 2 tonnes at a guess

[Ozzie Osmond]

markmullen said:

You can throw a Cayenne Turbo S around like it is a much smaller car.

Have you ever driven a smaller car with decent handling?

[GAjon]

I took my 6mps on track a few times, it was no slouch, and handled very well for a lump of iron.
The price to pay is brake wear, if you can upgrade them (I never looked into it properly) it would be a good area to look at improving before you up the power.

[ESOG]

You would think a 500hp viper would be a sluggish (or chaotic) mess around a track, but once mastered can seemingly outperform the likes of many cars, especially around the slalom where if I remember correctly even outperforms an Esprit. How that is ill never know.

[LuS1fer]

VXR8 is a great handling car and no lightweight.

[QuackHandle]

Ozzie Osmond said:

markmullen said:

You can throw a Cayenne Turbo S around like it is a much smaller car.

Have you ever driven a smaller car with decent handling?

That's not the point though is it? He wasn't saying it's like an Exige, just good for such a big heavy car.

[CrisW]

Depends what a 'heavy car' is really.

Some would say anything over a tonne is heavy. For others you're looking at two tonnes.

As long as your definition isn't too extreme then yes it is.

[pitbull turbo]

i think it must be more down to the mazda 6 mps being more setup for comfort rather than speed then.
He is 4 months old so has loads of stuff that needs lugging around. i could fit the stuff in a focus but to be fair it needs to be 5 doors and i don't like the drive of a st nor the look of the 5 door.

[otolith]

All other things being equal, no.

All other things are seldom equal.

[markmullen]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Have you ever driven a smaller car with decent handling?

I've driven between 8000 and 9000 different cars, most Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris etc so yes, I've driven the odd one or two.

[kambites]

Depends on you're definition of "well" and your definition of "heavy". A two tonne car is never going to match the very best lightweight car but if it's well enough set up, it can be better than most lighter cars.

[Stu R]

markmullen said:

I've driven between 8000 and 9000 different cars, most Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris etc so yes, I've driven the odd one or two.

Mark, there's times where I think your life must be one long 'Gone In Sixty Seconds' tribute. This is one of those times

[otolith]

kambites said:

Depends on you're definition of "well" and your definition of "heavy". A two tonne car is never going to match the very best lightweight car but if it's well enough set up, it can be better than most lighter cars.

And handling is subjective - many people would prefer the way an Audi A4 handles to the way an Exige does. I suppose the difference is that with enough fiddling with geometry, tyres, springs, dampers and electronics, you could probably make an Exige handle a lot like the Audi, but it would be much more difficult to do the converse.

[ewenm]

They can definitely be made to handle "well enough" for day to day use on our roads. As a family hack, I'm glad of a bit of waftiness though.

[RobM77]

Put simply, mass is bad for handling, but there are many ways that mass can be managed, or in other words many multipliers for mass. This is mainly due to centre of gravity, suspension design and setup.

Good examples of this are some of the bigger off roaders, like the Cayenne or BMW X series, which handle reasonably well (perhaps comparable or even better than a bog standard saloon like a Mondeo) despite their high mass and ludicrous centre of gravity. On the other hand you've got cars like the last generation Fiesta, which had woeful suspension so despite its fairly "low" weight handled quite badly, or the Fiat Punto, which has pretty poor handling (cf Yaris, Jazz and other similar cars), especially at the limit, again, despite having low weight.

The only way to tell really is to drive the car/vehicle in question and make your own judgement.

[TTwiggy]

I went from an Elise to a Jag XJ8 and was amazed at how well the old barge handled. So, in short, yes.