Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Autowirral What is Good Handling??

When people say a car has good Handling, what do they mean by this?

Going from a Micra to an Alfa 146, Im sure Ill experience some difference. But what?

In Racing, a Good Handling car is a fast car, which can often mean stiff cramped controls, with very responsive and unforgiving steering. Being loose at the rear end is often a sig of a good handling car as well. Similar to Rallying.

Surely these specific traits are unwanted on normal road conditions though?

So, what Constitutes, in your view, a good handling car on the road ????

hmmm to me a good handling car is one that can handle a the power and delivers it well, a car that can go round corners a lot faster than others... ie: i can throw my car around a fairly sharp corner at about 20mph and i get understeer galore, do it in my missus fez and it just flies round the corner with great grip...

Its all about how well a car is balanced between front and rear grip, how well it transfers the grip from one end to the other, how well it lets you use the brakes to slow and enter the corner, how well the car balances mid corner, and how well it lets you use the power to get out of a corner.

A good handling FWD car is different to a good handling RWD car, which is different to an AWD car.

If you want to experience good handling from a standard car(rwd tho),just book a test drive in an M-Powered BMW!!!
And no, I am not biased in any way,what so ever!!! lol

Grip, tonnes of it, no understeer and no oversteer

NOT A FKIN TURBOD MICRA.......................................

Grip is completely different - handling is how the car behaves once you exceed the level of grip.

For example, you could fit ma-hooo-sive tyres to a family saloon - the grip level would increase, but the handling wouldnt improve...

Caterham Seven probably.

I like a car i can confidently flick around and behave as i wish but still be capable of driving very smooth and consistent. How that is depends on the drive layout though and whether the chassis can handle it.

The pop could never handle the power, it was designed for a 1172 with 30bhp designed in 1956, so i had to drive very differently to how i drive the RS which happily takes the power, its much more forgiving so i can drive it faster and harder.

Car handling is a description of the way cars perform transverse to their direction of motion, particularly during cornering and swerving. It also includes their stability when moving in a straight line.Therefore car handling is usually measured(for the most part)while the tyres still have grip!!

Who are you the stig Fook me Jones you know to much about to much

Team riding my broadside wide like a backelship ftw

You know me mate...its just cars,cars,cars and then some more cars just for good measure...lol

That is all based on weight distribution, centre of Gravity and Moments (turning forces) that affect the cars handling and grip levels.

You have to collate all this information along the X, Y and Z axis of the car, which basically are the forces created through Velocity, Braking and Gravity......

The better the grip, the more confident I am to throw it round corners, thus, providing there is no or little understeer or oversteer, that IMO is good handling

Nicely pasted mate,however, your post just re-enforces my previous statement..lol