The SVO was able to match or exceed the skidpad and slalom numbers of two of the best handling cars at the time. It couldn't do that if it handled like crap.
It could, actually. It could do exactly that by having equal or greater grip than they do. Grip (again) is not synonymous with handling.
Maybe the Ferrari 308 and Porsche 944 handled bad and it was masked by sticky tires?
Only both those cars
were rated highly in their day for
actual handling characteristics (particularly the Porsche).
Mustangs, traditionally, have not been great handlers as standard. I'm not saying the SVO
wasn't (I've not driven one, nor have I driven a 308 or 944 to compare it with), but quoting "good numbers" does not mean it was a good handling car. It just means it was one that happened to be good in measurable disciplines that tend to place grip over handling.
Skidpad tests more than grip, it also tests balance.
Not really. It's more a test of the driver's ability to hold the car on a point just before it oversteers or understeers. That requires balance, but like handling as a whole, balance is a much broader concept than holding a car at a constant throttle to make it return good skidpad numbers. If the driver could say, find that point instantaneously in a turn on the road, or on a race track, then that'd be good balance. Slowly getting up to it and holding the car there is just practice.
Slalom tests agility and ability to change direction.
Indeed. But an agile car won't necessarily return good slalom figures if it doesn't first have good grip. Rather depends how tight the slalom is too - provided the tires stick there's little reason a dodgy-handling car couldn't be muscled through a slalom at the same speed a better-handling car could flow through with little effort.
To say you have this article presumably in your possession, you've not really provided much detail into this "handling" thing. Is the test just a bunch of numbers or are there actually testers' notes on how the cars actually handle?
