Which car handles best, a Corvette or Ferrari?
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M$2 Answers
2010 Ferrari California pulls 0.99 g on the stick pad.
Ferrari Enzo is capable of 1.01 g on the stick pad
1999-2004 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale produces 1.3 g on the stick pad.
Here's a comparison where a Corvette and Ferrari were compared head to head: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupes/112_0901_chevrolet_corvette_ferrari_599_gtb_comparison/specs.html
While "stick pad" or lateral acceleration measurements determine a car's ability to hold a turn at a maximum speed without slipping (oversteer or understeer), it is not a true measurement of how well a car handles, per se, because some drivers can use the characteristics of a car to purposely slide around turns to minimize track times.
Thus, the only way you could know if a Ferrari or Corvette handles better is to race each around a curvy track where top speed and acceleration are not the top ingredients necessary to achieve the optimum track time and have each driven by the same driver.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
No, that's not a true statement. It's power to weight ratio, not weight, that would help determine this. Other factors come into play as well: gearing ratios, drag coefficients, stability systems, and other things.
On the speedway, with not too many sharp turns, the biggest factors would be which car had the lower drag coefficient and which one had the highest power to weight ratio.
When comparing the turn radius of car 1 and car 2 with different stick pads ratios, does the car with the higher stick pad ratio also have a tighter handling pull on the curve?
A drag coefficient is a dimensionless (has no units like, say, horsepower) quantity that is used to gauge how strongly air (i.e., wind) can push on car. The lower the number, the slicker it is. A Corvette has a very low drag coefficient, 0.28. Ferraris all tend to have a drag coefficient of around that range. For example, the 2007 Ferrari F430 has a drag coefficient of 0.33.
Another parameter that affects handling is "downforce." This is like drag, but directed downward, also known as "reverse lift." This is already accounted for in the stick pad "g" number.
http://www.cars.com/go/crp/research.jsp?makeid=51&modelid=7771&year=2007&myid=8938&acode=&mode=&aff=national§ion=features
BSME, cum laude, Thermal and Fluids Focus, Vehicle Dynamics, Internal Combustion Engine, and Fluids Flow Laboratory Courses.
The Ferrari handles better by the numbers
However, on a speedway the Corvette should be compareable because of weight. Is this a true statement?
At the same speed, the car with the smaller turning radius actually has the highest lateral acceleration (stick pad gs). If you recall from physics, the formula for centripetal acceleration is the square of the velocity divided by the radius. For a car, the velocity is the speed and the radius is turning radius.
If you're taking two turns at the same exact speed and one turn is sharper than the other, the sharper turn will have a higher stick pad measurement, even though the car was going the same speed in both instances. This is assuming constant speed throughout the turn.
So, a higher stick pad measurement gives a car the ability to take sharper turns at the same speed without slipping. Or, conversely, a higher stick pad measurement gives a car the ability to take the same turn faster without slipping.
http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/physics/circ/node6.html