Variation Ranges for the Handling Characteristics of Today's Passenger Cars

So far the handling characteristics of passenger cars have mainly been designed on the basis of subjective criteria. It will be possible to make well-founded statements only when we have succeeded in correlating accident frequency and vehicle handling characteristics. Before we can do so, however, we must be able to give objective descriptions of the handling characteristics. The aim of the investigations described herin, which were carried out under commission to the German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, is to give a quantifiable description of the handling characteristics of 15 different passenger vehicles in 7 test procedures during which steady-state, dynamic steering and braking manouvers were measured.