Can it be measured at all or is it all how a person feels?
Is it all about the balance of the car, but then what about drivetrain configuration or steering input - assisted or not? Meaty wide tires? Quality tires? Fastest around the track? Top Gear track? :lol
Discuss.
I love the feel of a dumped out static car with 12" wide wheels and 215’s on them.
JK.
good bike + good rider + warm smooth back country road =
/thread
My personal definition of handling is what I do to my package on a nightly basis.
On a serious note I don’t have a lot to add because most of my cars have been low powered fwd with stock suspension but I do know I like a steering wheel that provides a decent amount of resistance when turning.
for me there’s nothing like throwing on a square tire set up on the e36 for a driving event. 245s all around for the track/autox. 215 or 225s all around for drifting, not really ideal handling but feels awesome
So pushing your bike on public roads is better than dailying a fitted car and taking it to the track when I wanna go fast, gotcha:tongue
My brother who CRs for NESBA always said you can never experience the true handling potential of a bike on public roads. Hmmm or maybe he always just said you shouldnt lol cant remember
I’m just pulling your chain Mike. No need to go full blow essay mode on me.=D
Handling, to me, is pretty hard to define so I’ll try to keep it simple.
It starts with the brakes…
For example, when I’m braking into the bus-stop, or turn 6, or turn 1 at Watkins Glen, I like a balanced braking system where the car stays planted, and the rears don’t have too much bite to where the ass end will get a little un-easy before turn in. I also like braking late, so the entire system needs to work well. At WGI, I’m a pussy and brake at the 5 marker when going into the bus stop, but I noticed other people in my run-group are braking even earlier than I am with a car that’s not carrying as much momentum.
Then there’s turn in…
I don’t want to worry about the ass end coming out on me there either. But I also can’t have it plowing through. I don’t want the car fighting me. I also like to get on the throttle just before the apex on most turns. I feel that’s when there’s most control in the car during a turn.
Then there’s track out…
Since I’m usually on the throttle before the apex, I am firm about applying the throttle in a gradual manner, but I am definitely WOT about 1/2 way between the apex and full track out. The car can’t be uneasy in this step for me either. Just slowly unwinding the wheel letting the car do most of the work.
Here’s the setup I’m running currently… Expect the rear brake pad compound to change by my next event:
Tires: Toyo R888, 275-35/18 on all four. In the dry, these can be facing whichever way you want which allows a lot of rotating options given the sizes are the same F/R. In the wet, however, I heard that you want them facing forward as they were designed as that’s what’s best for water-evac. If you look on the tread pattern, if it’s reversed it will put the water towards the middle of the tire, as opposed to away from the tire when it’s the right way.
Brakes: Stock calipers, stock size rotors.
Bimmerworld’s stainless lines
Performance Friction Direct Drive rotors
Performance Friction 08 compound in the front, 01 compound in the rear. I’m going to be switching to 08 rears as well for a better balance. The 01s have a little bit more initial bite, but they don’t last long. I’ll sacrifice some initial bite for a ton of pad life.
Suspension: A lot.
OLLIE: WTF WERE YOU?
I like the car to stay nice and flat the whole corner. When u hit the apex and can start to throttle up upand out of the corner and it just feels like its glued down. When u feel ur tires and swaybars diging into pull u out because ur doubling the suggested speed and u can trust ur car to not leave u looking like a assclown
Cars are faster in corners than bikes due to downforce and can actually generate serious G’s.
While I love riding a bike on back roads a good handling car can be quite blissful as well.
Cossey has a boner ITT
being able to slide a car through a turn,pick up three quarters , and lose no momentum.
j/k
i would like to believe handling or good handling is being able to enter, follow through, and exit a turn without slipping or sliding and faster than anyone else. also mantaining consistant or improved laptimes if on a track. and stability at high speeds.
A good set of tires and some minor upgrades to make a stockish car feel firmer and better planted and thus more fun to drive. I don’t and never will track competitively so my cars have always been setup to be more fun to drive on the street then anything else.
Lotus…nuff said.
It has to be solid, minimal body roll and consistent, so you know what to expect. On fwd I want it to understeer slightly, just enough to be correctable with a throttle tap. There does have to be some give to the suspension though, rock hard feels like it’s not working, plus transferring the energy into the chassis takes some stress off the tires so they grip better. A well balanced car focuses forces toward the center, that’s kind of the point of placing weights too. At least that’s my opinion, it really is a matter of what gives the driver more confidence. So it would be a balance between what they are familiar with and a “perfect” setup I guess…
While excellent on a small course, their advantages drop off quickly due to low hp and extremely short wheelbase once the course has faster turns and a long straight.
This makes no sense to me.
the question was personal definition of handling…not acceleration or speed.
Hence why I mentioned the wheelbase. A Lotus’ short wheelbase does not help when carrying a lot of momentum. It becomes uneasy and more difficult to manage.
Predictibility. Knowing exactly what the car will do in any given situation. Being able to know that gives the confidence to reach the limit of whatever you’re driving.
Also, Miata.
Just a matter of preference, not a lot of understeer more of a balanced setup. But if it’s going to lean one way or the other I don’t like the back to kick out with a fwd. If it’s pushing thru the corner slightly you can throttle it to pull a little if you come in to hard. Maybe it just works for my driving style.
If you are already pushing in a FWD (unless you’ve got a cool torque-vectoring system like ATTS), more throttle is going to just give you more understeer. Lifting a bit would help bring the nose back in line.
I generally have driven FWD cars that are not considered to handle especially well. Too soft suspensions, body roll, understeer, all-season tires, etc. Learning how to make a car like that go around corners forced me to learn about controlling understeer, weight transfer, and trail braking.
I would say for a somewhat idealized handling feel, on a front wheel drive I’d want nearly neutral balanced towards oversteer. That way you can easily get the car to rotate, but you can just induce understeer by giving it too much throttle if you get in trouble. I also prefer a slightly longer wheelbase (my car has a 106in wheelbase), because I feel like it is more forgiving and lets the car rotate a bit more slowly. This makes oversteer easier to catch (screwing around in the snow, my car tends to drift out, rather than just do a 180).
For RWD (which I admit I don’t have enough experience with), I’d want neutral with a touch of understeer. That way you can just power through it.
On the whole, I think the best handling car is the one that gives the driver the confidence to drive it the hardest.