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Old 04-05-2006, 07:28 AM
Mean 69 Mean 69 is offline
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No big disagreement, Denny, but the last I looked, there were maybe a handful of cars that any of the manufacturers (and the list of cars gets REALLY thin with the big three alone) really care to think about road course/overall performance handling. There's a couple in Italy, a few in Germany, one really kick butt one in Sweden (of all places!!!), bla, bla.

And of course, just think of the liability!!!! One of the big three's lawyers actually endorsing performance/high speed driving! E-ghads! Good thought tough.

One note on the skid pad diameters. Theoretically, you'd expect slightly different numbers for lateral acceleration on different sized skid pads, but in practical terms, you'd probably never measure it. One biggie is steering input, and resultant slip angles of the tires. Ackerman, slip angles, boring book-crap like that. At some point, you have to come up with something practical, and I agree that the method that PHR and Primedia (out here anyway) do this stuff is a good overall compromise between a level playing field, good primary indicator, and safety for the cars and test drivers. Nothing's perfect. Unfortunately.

M
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