Handling Stats?

[wtrouser]

Does anyone know of a way to statistically measure/compare the "handling" ability between two cars?

 

[Rotorist]

I would turn around the last turn of Tsukuba and watch the replay to see the min. speed in which the car turned. I would try the same line for all cars I compared.

 

[wtrouser]

I like it... maybe create a ratio of min speed through the turn over the speed entering the turn. This ratio could be compared across cars and classes. I'll post a quick report after some trials.

 

[iamsupernasty]

That test would only show latteral grip which only begins to tell the story of a cars handling.

To the OP:
You can test skidpads and slaloms to give you numbers that describe the basics of handling, but some handling charesteristics can only be felt by the seat of you panta and are not tangible. There are no tets for those.

 

[Aaronrray]

Indy superspeedway corner speed...Easy to repeat, high speed easy to compare, and very hard to mess-up. The differences are very noticeable!

 

[wtrouser]

supernasty... I agree completely that overall "handling" can't be measured with numbers. For fun, I'm trying to come up with a way to compare cars across classes... something not completely dependent on speed/HP/lap times. Calling it "handling" is probably just bad semantics on my part.

 

[wtrouser]

From the Waste Of Time department:

I noted the best lap times and max speeds for three cars on Special Stage 11, then calculated the cars' "ideal" lap times, (i.e. if the cars had ran at their max speeds the entire 14.47 miles). A ratio of the best lap time over the ideal time for each car went like this:

Gran Turismo Formula: 89.405%
Peugeot 207 88.232%
McLaren F1 83.0175%

I used that track to guarantee each car would reach its max speed, (thus making the race relative and not dependent on speed). While I'm not positive just what kind of list I'm trying to come up with, I know that list wouldn't have a Peugeot 207 over the McLaren, that's for sure.

Back to the drawing board.