Chassis > Horsepower
#1
Disinformation Terminator
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Chassis > Horsepower
I was thinking tonight, if I had to choose between a great-handling gutless car and a hugely powerful crap-handling car, I'd pick great-handling-gutless almost every day of the week.
The End.
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The End.
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#6
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#8
Suzuka Master
It provides more of an adrenaline rush, but then I've never been in a car that really pushed me back in my seat. Still I'll take a great chassis over hp.
#11
AZ Community Team
+2 even more true for motorcycles. I have a little 500 Honda that weights ~430 lb all fueled up. Only has 68HP but is alot more fun to run in twisty roads than a 500+ lb bike.
Although today there are some liter sport bikes that weigh the same and have 160-170HP so in bikes you can have it all
Although today there are some liter sport bikes that weigh the same and have 160-170HP so in bikes you can have it all
#12
I have to agree, which is ironic because I have an F-Body. My next car would ideally be an S2000, but I don't have a garage to put it in. Slim chance in hell that I'm going to leave it outside....
#14
Whoa, whoa whoa..... when you're talking about the GT500 it's a totally different story. I will take my cake and eat it too, thank you. What other car from the factory can outrun a V10 R8 around a road course for $50k?
Certainly not an Elise, and probably not an Exige either for that matter. As much as I love both of those cars, that is like taking an Integra Type-R over an E46 M3 when you're talking performance.
Certainly not an Elise, and probably not an Exige either for that matter. As much as I love both of those cars, that is like taking an Integra Type-R over an E46 M3 when you're talking performance.
#18
Rooting for Acura
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I agree. Great handling cars are just fun to drive (period). I believe the success of cars like the 3 Series Bimmer hinge upon this very fact. Love or hate BMW, you have to admit they are fun to drive.
#19
Back From The dead
I didn't think the feeling of punching the shawd coming out of a turn could get much better.
Punching the Nova from a stand still wins.
The overall feeling is better in the TL, but it's a higher high in the Chevy.
Punching the Nova from a stand still wins.
The overall feeling is better in the TL, but it's a higher high in the Chevy.
#20
Pro
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Whoa, whoa whoa..... when you're talking about the GT500 it's a totally different story. I will take my cake and eat it too, thank you. What other car from the factory can outrun a V10 R8 around a road course for $50k?
Certainly not an Elise, and probably not an Exige either for that matter. As much as I love both of those cars, that is like taking an Integra Type-R over an E46 M3 when you're talking performance.
Certainly not an Elise, and probably not an Exige either for that matter. As much as I love both of those cars, that is like taking an Integra Type-R over an E46 M3 when you're talking performance.
Last edited by n3o; 12-03-2010 at 11:30 AM.
#21
Three Wheelin'
i prefer HP over handling...simply because the majority of us will never get to experience the thrill of a racing track; taking a ramp faster than normal or cutting thru traffic doesn't count bec. almost any car can do that! besides, the majority of drivers out there push it to the metal every time from a red light or stop sign. heck, i get burned by priuses all day, every day!
#23
Senior Moderator
While the CTS-V handles really well for a 4255-lb pig and would beat my S2000 on the drag strip, my S2000 handles....well, not quite like a go-cart, but as close to one as you can get in a 2800-lb little car. I don't care that I go 0-60 in *only* 5.2 seconds in the S, as it's so tossable.
You could also say the same thing about electronic nannies, of which the S2000 has few--the only ones on the S are ABS and power assisted steering.
(Note: All the nannies can be turned off on the V as well, but that is REALLY dangerous in the wrong hands.)
#24
Registered Member
My wife's last car was a '96 328i which we bought in 1999. Soon there after, I bought a 2000 Ford SVT Contour. I can tell you flat out that the SVT Contour won every time for the sheer thrill of driving a sweet handling machine.
#25
Registered Member
#27
Whats up with RDX owners?
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I miss my 88 Civic
#29
Your Friendly Canadian
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I dunno, it's a close one.
For a weekend warrior, it's hands down handling. I'd rather take a new Miata over say, a Mustang GT for a tight road course or a nice mountain road.
BUT, I live in a populated metro area, as many of you do. And metro areas don't have hairpin sweeps, or mountain roads. The roads here take the shape of a Viagra-induced boner. That's long and straight. Lots of 'em.
I'd love to say I'd appreciate a well-handling car, and I do. But count the number of times you go WOT, and compare it to the number of times you meet or exceed your car's handling limits. Even if my car had 500 horsepower, I bet the numbers would be greatly skewed in favor of using power more often.
The only places that there are turns of any significance around here are at intersections. Not the safest place to enjoy your car's chassis. Sure, occasionally we'll take a turn quickly, or need to avoid some debris on the road, and in times like that, a good-handling car would be nice to have.
Much more often though, we'll be trying to make that yellow light, have some fun on on-ramps, or pass a slow turd in the right lane. I do it every single day.
Sure, there are some aspects of a good chassis that you might be able to appreciate without taking a corner quickly. Lack of chassis flex, for example. But a very small amount of consumers (myself included) would notice this on a daily basis.
For a fun car, or track racer, superior chassis over horsepower for sure. For a DD, power is the name of the game.
For a weekend warrior, it's hands down handling. I'd rather take a new Miata over say, a Mustang GT for a tight road course or a nice mountain road.
BUT, I live in a populated metro area, as many of you do. And metro areas don't have hairpin sweeps, or mountain roads. The roads here take the shape of a Viagra-induced boner. That's long and straight. Lots of 'em.
I'd love to say I'd appreciate a well-handling car, and I do. But count the number of times you go WOT, and compare it to the number of times you meet or exceed your car's handling limits. Even if my car had 500 horsepower, I bet the numbers would be greatly skewed in favor of using power more often.
The only places that there are turns of any significance around here are at intersections. Not the safest place to enjoy your car's chassis. Sure, occasionally we'll take a turn quickly, or need to avoid some debris on the road, and in times like that, a good-handling car would be nice to have.
Much more often though, we'll be trying to make that yellow light, have some fun on on-ramps, or pass a slow turd in the right lane. I do it every single day.
Sure, there are some aspects of a good chassis that you might be able to appreciate without taking a corner quickly. Lack of chassis flex, for example. But a very small amount of consumers (myself included) would notice this on a daily basis.
For a fun car, or track racer, superior chassis over horsepower for sure. For a DD, power is the name of the game.
#31
Whats up with RDX owners?
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#32
My first Avatar....
I dunno, it's a close one.
For a weekend warrior, it's hands down handling. I'd rather take a new Miata over say, a Mustang GT for a tight road course or a nice mountain road.
BUT, I live in a populated metro area, as many of you do. And metro areas don't have hairpin sweeps, or mountain roads. The roads here take the shape of a Viagra-induced boner. That's long and straight. Lots of 'em.
I'd love to say I'd appreciate a well-handling car, and I do. But count the number of times you go WOT, and compare it to the number of times you meet or exceed your car's handling limits. Even if my car had 500 horsepower, I bet the numbers would be greatly skewed in favor of using power more often.
The only places that there are turns of any significance around here are at intersections. Not the safest place to enjoy your car's chassis. Sure, occasionally we'll take a turn quickly, or need to avoid some debris on the road, and in times like that, a good-handling car would be nice to have.
Much more often though, we'll be trying to make that yellow light, have some fun on on-ramps, or pass a slow turd in the right lane. I do it every single day.
Sure, there are some aspects of a good chassis that you might be able to appreciate without taking a corner quickly. Lack of chassis flex, for example. But a very small amount of consumers (myself included) would notice this on a daily basis.
For a fun car, or track racer, superior chassis over horsepower for sure. For a DD, power is the name of the game.
For a weekend warrior, it's hands down handling. I'd rather take a new Miata over say, a Mustang GT for a tight road course or a nice mountain road.
BUT, I live in a populated metro area, as many of you do. And metro areas don't have hairpin sweeps, or mountain roads. The roads here take the shape of a Viagra-induced boner. That's long and straight. Lots of 'em.
I'd love to say I'd appreciate a well-handling car, and I do. But count the number of times you go WOT, and compare it to the number of times you meet or exceed your car's handling limits. Even if my car had 500 horsepower, I bet the numbers would be greatly skewed in favor of using power more often.
The only places that there are turns of any significance around here are at intersections. Not the safest place to enjoy your car's chassis. Sure, occasionally we'll take a turn quickly, or need to avoid some debris on the road, and in times like that, a good-handling car would be nice to have.
Much more often though, we'll be trying to make that yellow light, have some fun on on-ramps, or pass a slow turd in the right lane. I do it every single day.
Sure, there are some aspects of a good chassis that you might be able to appreciate without taking a corner quickly. Lack of chassis flex, for example. But a very small amount of consumers (myself included) would notice this on a daily basis.
For a fun car, or track racer, superior chassis over horsepower for sure. For a DD, power is the name of the game.
Well said. There aren't a lot of canyons to carve around here.
But since you mentioned it...a Mustang GT could be a pretty good blend of power and handling.
#33
Whats up with RDX owners?
iTrader: (9)
The thing I really like about cars that handle well is they are usually pretty light. Therefore, you dont need alot of power for it to still be somewhat exciting in a straight line.
Case in point:
This one just happens to have this under the hood
Case in point:
This one just happens to have this under the hood
#34
To each their own. My comment was purley a different way of expression that I'd take a handling car over a power car. If you'd prefer I'll say Ariel Atom Supercharged > Veyron. I also personally don't care for cars whom use an inferior suspension design found in horse buggies from 100 years ago. With that said, different strokes for different fokes. I was told I caught about a foot of air the other day on an old access road we use "touge" on. That alone should give you an idea of how hard I drive my cars lol. Oh and btw, I doubt this is accurate but at Willow Springs just for the record a 3G TL-S driven by Tsuchiya out lapped a GT500 >.< lol wtf is up with that?!
I personally would choose a supercharged Atom over a Veyron also, but then again I've never really liked the Veyron at all. To each his own indeed. But just know that the 2011+ GT500 is no slouch, regardless of any 'ancient' technology it uses.
#36
Burning Brakes
Although I do not have any performance vehicles, I enjoy the RSX much much more than the nose heavy, torque steering useless power of the Max. The TSX is a nice combination but way underpowered by todays standards.
#38
Pro
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That's funny because his favorite car of all time, the '86 Corolla uses the same "horse buggy" suspension design as the GT500. And I've seen that episode, that happened to be the older, iron-block GT500... again, the new aluminum-block GT500 is even faster than a V10 R8 despite the horse buggy suspension design. I'm not surprised by the 3G TL-S's performance though, I don't remember what track it was on but it was found to outlap an M3 also, though at the same time Best Motoring, along with Tsuchiya himself have shown a ton of bias for Japanese cars.
I personally would choose a supercharged Atom over a Veyron also, but then again I've never really liked the Veyron at all. To each his own indeed. But just know that the 2011+ GT500 is no slouch, regardless of any 'ancient' technology it uses.
I personally would choose a supercharged Atom over a Veyron also, but then again I've never really liked the Veyron at all. To each his own indeed. But just know that the 2011+ GT500 is no slouch, regardless of any 'ancient' technology it uses.
Fwiw, I don't know if you follow the Castrol Top Car Challenge, but they recently had an event at Willow Springs. The 5.0 Mustang GT500, believe it was an iron block one, and a convert. with a bunch of bolt ons making something like 650hp ran a 2:06. S2000 with suspension, intake and exhaust ran a 2:00. Whats even more impressive is that a supercharged 500hp widebody E46 M3, 650whp MKIV Supra and bolt on GT-R all ran 1:56-1:59's. Way too many twisty roads around here to pass up a nice handling machine and I drive on them way too much to pass it up. That and imo over 300whp in a 2wd car is a waste on the street
#40
I think it's a little misleading also when you compare just chassis and horsepower. Chassis and powertrain is more like it.... I can't stand it when a car has an engine with no balls that sounds like a weed whacker and has a rough notchy, yet loose shifter. They're both equally as important, otherwise many of us would be driving Miatas or another similar car, and even then the Miata has an amazing shifter.
I think very few of us would be happy with the engines in our cars hypothetically having 2 fewer cylinders, no matter how good they handle.
The only good Ford is the GT...or anything that came from Ford UK. GT500 might be fast, and I know they went to a lighter aluminum block now in 2010 but its still not my cup of tea. If I want to go fast straight I'll take a 900whp MKIV Supra since its practically what they were built for unintentionally.
Fwiw, I don't know if you follow the Castrol Top Car Challenge, but they recently had an event at Willow Springs. The 5.0 Mustang GT500, believe it was an iron block one, and a convert. with a bunch of bolt ons making something like 650hp ran a 2:06. S2000 with suspension, intake and exhaust ran a 2:00. Whats even more impressive is that a supercharged 500hp widebody E46 M3, 650whp MKIV Supra and bolt on GT-R all ran 1:56-1:59's. Way too many twisty roads around here to pass up a nice handling machine and I drive on them way too much to pass it up. That and imo over 300whp in a 2wd car is a waste on the street
Fwiw, I don't know if you follow the Castrol Top Car Challenge, but they recently had an event at Willow Springs. The 5.0 Mustang GT500, believe it was an iron block one, and a convert. with a bunch of bolt ons making something like 650hp ran a 2:06. S2000 with suspension, intake and exhaust ran a 2:00. Whats even more impressive is that a supercharged 500hp widebody E46 M3, 650whp MKIV Supra and bolt on GT-R all ran 1:56-1:59's. Way too many twisty roads around here to pass up a nice handling machine and I drive on them way too much to pass it up. That and imo over 300whp in a 2wd car is a waste on the street
and I can't dispel any biases you have so we'll just have to agree to disagree.