The Student Room Group

Is it hard to drive a performance car normally?

I was at the lights behind a brand new M5 today.

Interested to see how my 180 bhp car stacked up to his I commited to keep up with him.

The lights went green and he left the cars in the other lane behind, with me flooring it and just about keeping up. Looked like he wasn't going for it.


Is it hard to accelerate in one of these at the rate of a lesser car? Similar to how I will out accelerate a lorry at the lights even when I'm not trying

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Most newer high-powered cars are fairly easy to drive sensibly.

A Nissan GT-R if you don't floor it doesn't actually drive any differently than a standard car with a semi-automatic gearbox.
Reply 2
Having been in an E60 M5, it doesn't appear to be any harder to drive than you're typical 5 series
Reply 3
Original post by Alfissti
Most newer high-powered cars are fairly easy to drive sensibly.

A Nissan GT-R if you don't floor it doesn't actually drive any differently than a standard car with a semi-automatic gearbox.


Original post by Y333EEE
Having been in an E60 M5, it doesn't appear to be any harder to drive than you're typical 5 series

So the guy in the M5 must have been trying to get a bit of a move on (granted not full throttle) for him to keep up with me going flat out
Original post by FuelBowser
So the guy in the M5 must have been trying to get a bit of a move on (granted not full throttle) for him to keep up with me going flat out


Probably :smile:
Reply 5
On most cars with a decent amount of power you only need to press the throttle pedal an inch to make reasonable progress.

Sure, if you've driven rubbish all your life once you get something decent you'll spend the first couple of weeks driving like a prat, but then you get over it and drive like everyone else.
Reply 6
Is it hard to drive a performance car normally?

No.

Is it hard to drive a performance car properly?

Yes.
Original post by gbduo
Is it hard to drive a performance car normally?

No.

Is it hard to drive a performance car properly?

Yes.


How do you define properly? By that do you mean remaining sensible on the open roads or pushing it to it's limit? (Just curious btw).
Reply 8
Original post by mikeyd85
How do you define properly? By that do you mean remaining sensible on the open roads or pushing it to it's limit? (Just curious btw).


You should never be pushing a car to its limits on the open roads. I'm a full blown petrolhead but pushing a car to its limits on the roads is a sign that you can't drive a performance car.

That is basically meaning that you can't drive a performance car properly.

Along with the other skills such as throttle control, weight control, brake modulation, etc...
Original post by gbduo
You should never be pushing a car to its limits on the open roads. I'm a full blown petrolhead but pushing a car to its limits on the roads is a sign that you can't drive a performance car.

That is basically meaning that you can't drive a performance car properly.

Along with the other skills such as throttle control, weight control, brake modulation, etc...


Fair enough. I was thinking more on track days with the whole pushing to it's limits thing. Totally agree it shouldn't be done on the roads.
Reply 10
Original post by mikeyd85
Fair enough. I was thinking more on track days with the whole pushing to it's limits thing. Totally agree it shouldn't be done on the roads.


Yeh, you will see a lot of guys turning up with performance cars on track days without a clue how to drive them.

But...its the best place to learn!!!
Original post by gbduo
Yeh, you will see a lot of guys turning up with performance cars on track days without a clue how to drive them.

But...its the best place to learn!!!

I can't wait to do a track day some time. Wanna have a go in some fast cars, see if my sim racing experience helps at all.
Reply 12
Original post by mikeyd85
I can't wait to do a track day some time. Wanna have a go in some fast cars, see if my sim racing experience helps at all.


Not really.

Its butt feel, you don't get that in simulator.

You do understand over/under steer though and some throttle control which is always useful.
Original post by gbduo
Not really.

Its butt feel, you don't get that in simulator.

You do understand over/under steer though and some throttle control which is always useful.

Yeah for sure.

And you're right. I understand how a car would behave in certain conditions.
Reply 14
One of the first cars i drove was my mums Skoda Octavia 4x4 1.9L. it was VERY powerful (had an audi a3 engine in it) and with it being 4wd i could leave most cars behind. however because of this, it meant that if i touch the acellerator slightly the car flew. it's more difficult to drive a powerful car. but it is more fun.
Something like a bike engined car, or a high revving lightened cammy car or a car with a multiplayer clutch is going to be awful to drive nornslly
Reply 16
Original post by MJH216
One of the first cars i drove was my mums Skoda Octavia 4x4 1.9L. it was VERY powerful (had an audi a3 engine in it) and with it being 4wd i could leave most cars behind. however because of this, it meant that if i touch the acellerator slightly the car flew. it's more difficult to drive a powerful car. but it is more fun.


140bhp is very powerful?

For real!?
Reply 17
Original post by Friggerpants
Something like a bike engined car, or a high revving lightened cammy car or a car with a multiplayer clutch is going to be awful to drive nornslly


I used to have an MG midget with a balls out nutter a series engine taken out from 1275cc to almost 1.4 litres. Forged pistons, stage 3 head, roller rockers, race profile cam, webber DCOE carb... you get the idea. It was basically a race car. Add in a fire extinguisher, a roll cage and the appropriate tyres it could have been run in any number of championships...

It idled at about 1500rpm and because of the cut of the cam it sounded like a machine gun at idle. Absolutely gutless under 2500rpm and it needed 3-3.5k rpm just to pull away.
It *was* possible to drive the thing through traffic but it wasn't a pleasant experience. It made a hell of a lot of noise and it just made you feel like a dickhead laying on that many revs to move up in traffic. It didn't help matters being ASBO orange...
The engine was built by someone who was deaf - I guess it obviously didn't bother him!



Reply 18
Sounds like driving a Honda, **** all torque so to pull away, it always up around 2500 to 3000rpm to get going lol.

That Midget is MINT as well!
Reply 19
Original post by gbduo
140bhp is very powerful?

For real!?


compared to the 1.2 corsa i was learning in. it was.

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