Well, there are at least a couple around that do like flinging cars about like toys, myself being one - John Futter's boy (and John himself for all I know) and perhaps Chris among them. Yeah, it's kinda weak minded when you can't reserve an entire city for it - I have to deal with deer, drunks on the wrong side of the road and so on, so I have to be a bit more conservative when I do it, and maintain at least a little safety margin. The 2010 Camaro SS (over 500hp when I was done with it) was at least as fast as the Ford shown above - over 204 mph at top speed with half a grand or more left on the tach and still pulling strong - but it didn't fly very well - the suspension was too fixated on keeping the tires on the road, and so it always "launched" a little off - and once airbourne, there's not a lot you can do about it. Nevertheless, I did have some fun at way over 100 mph on twisty moutain roads.
And also with the Volt, even though you wouldn't think of it as a performance car, in any situation where handling beats HP/weight ratio, it's a real winner, as we see here, with me piling into a 15 mph-rated hairpin at well over 55, and coming out well over 60 - I hammered the throttle going into the turn as I wasn't going fast enough to get it loose. Look how flat it slid with the "nanny" computer doing the fancy part - All I did was point it where I wanted it to go, and didn't even touch the yellow lines - just drifted perfectly flat about 4-5". You can't do the classic "drift" moves in the Volt as it doesn't have a user-controllable handbrake - just a button on-off, for that. but "drifting" isn't the fastest way around the track, or you'd see all the real pros doing it all the time - it's just fun, that's all. A little adrenaline is good for ya if your heart can take it. In fact, a lotta people like it - this has been more popular as a video on my youtube channel than any of the science stuff... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk6106_9IrE
In fact, it even got GM's attention. They had no idea they were making a sports car when they did the Volt. They flew a guy down here to see what I've been able to wring out of it. In fact, I still have the occaisional bit of fun taking on "ricky rice-racer" who thinks Tokyo Drift is an example of skilled racing. And I beat them so badly it's embarassing, stopping several times in a 9 mile course to let them close up - then leave them in the dust again, over and over. C'mon, you have to admit that it's fun if you can do it at reasonably low risk.
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 3:16 pm