Originally Posted by Red__Zed (Post 1465852)

better balance + better handling = better daily driver?:confused:



if you are fretting accidental power oversteer, you shouldn't be trusted with pointy objects, much less a car

Originally Posted by m4a1mustang (Post 1465855)

A totally controllable "wiggle" in a forward-biased car is not instability under braking. Try hard braking on a car with a lot of rear weight and then come back and talk about braking instability!

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465871)

:facepalm: Do you realize the context of this thread? The OP is talking about daily driving on the street, not on the track. Balance and handling in this context is not taking a corner at 1 g and clipping the apex. It's things like emergency lane change manoeuver, emergency braking, taking sharp right angle corners on rain, dust, or even snow covered roads, ease of driving even when the driver is not focused 100%, etc. Yes, power oversteer is a concern when driving on the street. Everyone says it can be managed with an experienced driver, and yes that's true. But the point is still it's more difficult to manage a more powerful car than a less powerful car as a daily driver.

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465871)

:facepalm: Do you realize the context of this thread? The OP is talking about daily driving on the street, not on the track. Balance and handling in this context is not taking a corner at 1 g and clipping the apex. It's things like emergency lane change manoeuver, emergency braking, taking sharp right angle corners on rain, dust, or even snow covered roads, ease of driving even when the driver is not focused 100%, etc. Yes, power oversteer is a concern when driving on the street. Everyone says it can be managed with an experienced driver, and yes that's true. But the point is still it's more difficult to manage a more powerful car than a less powerful car as a daily driver.

Originally Posted by UNKNOWN_370 (Post 1465873)

We're a small community. The accident count is amplified by our low numbers on the road. Let's say 20,000 out of 200,000 camaros have been in an accident. That's 10% of all camaros.
But 3000 out of 30000 Z had accidents. Though the ratio of accidents is the same. The impact is felt greater from the lower numbers. So 180k people haven't gotten into accidents vs only 27k Z's that haven't gotten into accidents. Its a play on numbers. People are getting into accidents because there a lot of stupid drivers on the road.

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465874)

I never mentioned a lot of rear weight. Obviously rear weight bias is also undesirable. My point was that a near 50/50 weight balance is better under braking in low traction condition than a very front-heavy car.

Originally Posted by Red__Zed (Post 1465881)

Please expand on your logic here.

Originally Posted by roplusbee (Post 1465883)

This thread is full of awesome. I am in the middle of Afghanistan laughing my A$$ off and the guys in the tent/shelter with me are wondering WTF is wrong with me. You guys my my deployment better just now!

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465871)

:facepalm: Do you realize the context of this thread? The OP is talking about daily driving on the street, not on the track. Balance and handling in this context is not taking a corner at 1 g and clipping the apex. It's things like emergency lane change manoeuver, emergency braking, taking sharp right angle corners on rain, dust, or even snow covered roads, ease of driving even when the driver is not focused 100%, etc. Yes, power oversteer is a concern when driving on the street. Everyone says it can be managed with an experienced driver, and yes that's true. But the point is still it's more difficult to manage a more powerful car than a less powerful car as a daily driver.

Originally Posted by Jeffblue (Post 1465864)

really? i thought this thread was actually about why so many people crash their Zs.

lets face it... none of this talk about handling,brake or weight bias, engine placement, horsepower etc really matters or is relevant to this thread. someone who will crash their g35 coupe into a tree would do the same thing in any car, it really doesn't matter. none of this talk about how a car behaves at the brink has anything to do with avoiding accidents. None of the people who post threads about crashing their Z did so at the track. Accidents happen because of a bad sequence of events and/or poor judgement. as far as single car accidents... its usually more the latter, and having more power and a more tail happy car doesn't help, but that has nothing to do with a car being a good daily driver.

if you really want the BEST Daily driver car, its probably going to be something in the 200-350hp range with awd. none of the cars we are talking about in this thread are really daily driver cars. Yes, you can drive them every day, but they aren't meant to get you to work rain or shine.

Originally Posted by Red__Zed (Post 1465877)

better "balance" and "handling" do not translate to better street manners. You are using the wrong words if you are trying to talk about the car's response to road situations.

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465889)

partially true. the point though was the OP was originally concerned if there were any sinister handling characteristics of the 370z that lead to so many people crashing them. i told him that there isn't anything to worry about and the z might even be easier and friendlier to drive than a z06. That is the statement that triggered the whole back and forth going on right now :shakes head:

Originally Posted by Pharmacist (Post 1465640)

never driven a z06, or any other rwd car for that matter. but i'd say the z is better balanced and better handling than the corvette. .