2011 Mustang: First car with 300 hp and 30 mpg.

[Cheezdoodles]

I don't know where you don't drive, but there are curvy mountain roads all over the US where you can push a good car and have tons of fun while being essentially legal.

I live in norway, all our roads are curvy, yet none have curves that my car challenged to take at legal limit.

Maybe it has something to do with the car.

 

[Mize]

Heh. My 370z can pull .99 g so I doubt there's too much issue there. IMHO straight line stomping is for younger folks. Some like the drag strip, others the autocross. Ymmv.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I like handling as much as anybody (trackdays are awesome), im just saying you can both utilize and have fun with acceleration on a regular day. Handling on the other hand is very hard to have fun with on it unless you drive illegally.

Either way, you definately need both to have max fun!

 

[_xxx_]

Handling really only makes a difference in sports cars if you go to a race track or drive very illegally.

Unbelivable You obviously have no curvy streets where you live?

Acceleration can be enjoyable legally too, it's much fun accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h (usual limit outside the cities here) with a 500+ hp car, or overtaking within legal limit etc. And the handling you can already feel in a sharp curve with 30 km/h on a wet road for example. Just do a little test drive with say a BMW vs. some american limousine of the same size, it's like night and day.

 

[MfA]

The minimum skidpad radius at 50 kph for a sportscar is what ... 20 meter or so?

 

[_xxx_]

It's usually the same as any car but the steering transfer ratio is different (higher and tighter with almost no "dead zone"). Anywhere between 9 and 12m or so.

Oh wait, you said at 50 kmh - I dunno, I was talking about the regular skid pad required for (slow) turns. With 50 kmh you'd fly out of the curve I guess. I'll ask one of our drivers if I don't forget it.

 

[Mintmaster]

Unbelivable You obviously have no curvy streets where you live?

I have quite a few, as the mountains around LA have a lot of beautiful winding roads, but again it comes down to speed limit. You're not going to have a turn in a 35 mph zone that pushes more than 0.3g at the speed limit, and even there you'll see recommended speed limits of 20 or something. If you go 60 then you can start pushing the handling limits, but not only is it illegal, but you are at the mercy of loose dirt hiding in the shadows, and average handling cars don't have much of a deficit there.

I have a E46 330ci, and speeding on curvy roads in the mountains was one of the first things I did. In one turn, however, I lost traction, heard a grinding noise on the right of the car before oversteering a few inches into the lane on my left and recovered. I thought for sure I messed up my car and hit the rail, but fortunately it was just the noise of the tires rubbing on the grass/dirt on the edge of the road, and the DSC saved me. Interestingly, a couple minutes later I saw a 5-series going in the opposite direction being put on a tow truck with it's front corner smashed in. I presume he was doing the same dumbass thing I was doing, so I considered myself lucky...

Definitely a nice handling car, and on the track it's probably better than most in the same class, but I enjoy the acceleration more often in day-to-day driving, and it's way safer, too.

 

[Mintmaster]

The minimum skidpad radius at 50 kph for a sportscar is what ... 20 meter or so?

That's about right for 1g, so it seems like a reasonable estimate. Of course, if you find a road with 20m radius and 50 kph speed limit, I'd be shocked.

 

[Mize]

Remember, recommended speed is not a legal boundary. We have lots of areas (particularly along rivers) where 45 mph roads have 10 mph recommended twists. Not nearly as fun as Mulhulland or Malibu Canyon near you (I grew up in LA), but I'm sure you can find the same. take a 10 mph recommended at 50 ish is only slightly illegal and quite fun. It's always better if it's a regular road of yours so you know about gravel/sand/etc. and that's where I have most of my fun. I have a couple nice twisties between the home and office and then a nice country-river drive I take with the wife some evenings after work.

Don't get me wrong, I love acceleration too, but tires are expensive so I generally don't hammer things too hard.

 

[Mintmaster]

Remember, recommended speed is not a legal boundary. We have lots of areas (particularly along rivers) where 45 mph roads have 10 mph recommended twists. Not nearly as fun as Mulhulland or Malibu Canyon near you (I grew up in LA), but I'm sure you can find the same.

I've been on Sunset, Mulholland, Coldwater Canyon, etc. but the best I've seen is a recommended 15 on a 35 road, and I can't say that a lesser car would be much less enjoyable at 45 mph on those roads. Some of them are fun, but I don't go out there too regularly and often there's too much traffic. I have to make room by going at granny speed and then I get a minute of faster driving.

Don't get me wrong, I love acceleration too, but tires are expensive so I generally don't hammer things too hard.

Well I don't do a burnout! I only drive like 4K a year, so premium gas and premium tires don't concern me.

 

[nintenho]

The minimum skidpad radius at 50 kph for a sportscar is what ... 20 meter or so?

About, yeah. Insane to actually push it to that level on a flat road though.

 

[Mize]

Mint - I haven't driven those roads since the mid-eighties so you can imagine how much less traffic there was then. I still go back to visit, but there's never time for drives like that.