Does anyone know how many g's a dumped A4/S4 can pull on a skidpad?
05-13-2002, 09:01 PM
#23
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I'll give you a comparision number, but even then, by no means that exacting...
in misses so many aspects of handling, and I feel that many people use it for an indication of overall turning ability, which it is so not.
As a test to see who can turn in a big circle the fastest, ignoring track material, tire compounds, heat of the track, humidity, and driver ability.... totally a great test...
(man, I am in kinda a dicky sounding mood tonight eh?)
As a test to see who can turn in a big circle the fastest, ignoring track material, tire compounds, heat of the track, humidity, and driver ability.... totally a great test...
(man, I am in kinda a dicky sounding mood tonight eh?)
05-13-2002, 09:10 PM
#29
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The same can be said for 1/4 mile times, 0-60, etc...
Lots of scatter, many different dependent variables but that does not invalidate it's use as a comparison tool. Like all comparisons you have to carefully bracket what the test demonstrates and be sure that your comparisons do not go outside the bounds of any assumptions implicit in the test method of choice.
Going beyond cars into other engineering endeavors... a single effect fretting test doesn't precisely simulate the high frequency vibrations of a fuel rod in a reactor. But it does provide a useful tool for measuring relative performance of various fuel designs.
Is a skidpad number the end all, be all of handling metrics? No. Will some people use it as such? Yes. Are many people uninformed of what the test actually means? Yes. Does that make it a worthless comparison? Again... no.
An M5, with an astronomically high skidpad value will handle much better than say a Ford Taurus with a ho-hum skidpad number. Now is the M5 better at 1.02g than the 355 GTS at 0.97? Too much scatter to call it, and that's where other effects come in.
Going beyond cars into other engineering endeavors... a single effect fretting test doesn't precisely simulate the high frequency vibrations of a fuel rod in a reactor. But it does provide a useful tool for measuring relative performance of various fuel designs.
Is a skidpad number the end all, be all of handling metrics? No. Will some people use it as such? Yes. Are many people uninformed of what the test actually means? Yes. Does that make it a worthless comparison? Again... no.
An M5, with an astronomically high skidpad value will handle much better than say a Ford Taurus with a ho-hum skidpad number. Now is the M5 better at 1.02g than the 355 GTS at 0.97? Too much scatter to call it, and that's where other effects come in.