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Old 05-02-2020, 03:35 AM   #24 (permalink)
JulianEdgar
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In fact, to continue the subject, if you love driving, I have become convinced that aero stability should be right up their with steering feel, and handling prowess.

When as a magazine driver I got to drive some high performance cars (twin turbo Porsches, Evo Lancers, etc) on real and challenging roads, I always felt two things most strongly - how well they rode and handled, and how 'rock solid' they felt on the road at speed.

A few decades later, I think 'rock solid' can be translated as having sufficient suspension travel and damping, and having good aerodynamic stability.

My little Insight will never be a twin turbo Porsche, but at speed it really does have that 'rock solid' feeling.

I was driving home the other day from my flat test stretch. The road I was on is now largely disused - it used to be the main highway, but now a freeway has bypassed it. The result is that you have the road to yourself. It's a very windy area (lots of wind turbines sited on nearby hills), and furthermore, as you come around some corners, the car can suddenly be exposed to the crosswinds.

I was going a bit faster than usual (about 140 km/h - 85 mph) around a long corner and the car was suddenly hit by a gust of crosswind as I came over a long crest. I could tell it had happened by the sudden increase in wind noise and the aero-induced body roll, but the steering correction - if any - was inconsequential.

As any car modifier does when they revel in something they've achieved, I was chuffed. It felt good.

(Footnote: it's technically likely that drag is also reduced by decreasing lift. I am not so sure about crosswind gust susceptibility: that gets pretty hard to figure out in terms of drag.)
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