So, How do you measure handling ?

If you are a german and very gründlich there are probably hundreds of variables which can be measured, massaged, filtered to give some meaningful figure on a scale.

Which is not for me, since handling is such a personal thing I want this to be about ‘feel’

Looking around for info about how others quantify handling (car magazines are very good for this) I was able to distill the following questions:

  • How well does it steer?

Is there a delay or does it react instantly?

  • How much does the steering tell you?

Can you feel the road trough the steering wheel?

  • How balanced is the car?

Does it over- or understeer? (we’ll get to this later)

  • How well does it change direction?

Slow and labouriously er is your car a mindreader?

  • How much does the car move, and what does it tell you?

Does it lean when cornering (roll) or pitch up/down when accelerating or braking?

  • What happens when you’re on (or over) the limit?

Does it try to kill you by throwing you into the nearest immovable object, or does it gently warn you that you really REALLY shouldn’t be doing this

  • How does it brake?

Do the tires squeal every time you brake or do you say a prayer every time you have to slow down the car?

  • How well does it connect to your ‘receiving apparatus’

Do you sit comfortably in the car, can you reach all the controls?

  • And last but not least.

Are we having fun while driving?

As you can see there are still quite a few points to ponder……must be a bit German after all!

In my next posts I will be tackling these points one by one, and try to give advice on how to improve matters if necessary