OP
OP
i promised myself i would keep this a secret, but what the hell-
my astra can take corners quicker than my alfa or my bravo or any car i have ever driven. i've been using the same corners to judge cars for the last decade so you get used to what is a "good" speed on any given corner.
if my alfa could manage 65mph on a given corner before understeer occured then the astra can do 70mph. honest. it doesnt sound like much, but it would mean a big difference around a track. as an example, my bravo managed 60mph on the same corner, and my girlfriend's mk2 is already struggling at 60mph. i managed to hold 75mpg in the astra but the front end did drift. my alfa never managed 75mph without the outside wheels crossing the while line. on sunday i'm going to try hitting this corner at 80mph in the astra. if you dont hear from me on monday then i failed to hold it.
so what does this mean? it means an astra coupe with odd crap quality tyres has better handling than an alfa 156 with good matching tyres. dont get me wrong, the alfa felt a lot better and you know what it was going to do, so you felt safer, but the astra can actually go faster, it just scares the hell out of you because you cant tell if its about to drift out or not.
turning the steering wheel more to correct front end drift was easy on the alfa, so you could have a nice controlled drift all through a bend. the astra doesnt give you enough feedback to even know when the front end has started drifting, you only know its happened when your bumhole starts to palpitate. correcting it is also guesswork, you never really know how much to turn the wheel to hold the drift.
handling ability is all well and good, but without steering wheel feedback you cant really enjoy it. the astra may go round a corner quicker, but i'd still rather be doing it 5mph slower in the alfa.
my astra can take corners quicker than my alfa or my bravo or any car i have ever driven. i've been using the same corners to judge cars for the last decade so you get used to what is a "good" speed on any given corner.
if my alfa could manage 65mph on a given corner before understeer occured then the astra can do 70mph. honest. it doesnt sound like much, but it would mean a big difference around a track. as an example, my bravo managed 60mph on the same corner, and my girlfriend's mk2 is already struggling at 60mph. i managed to hold 75mpg in the astra but the front end did drift. my alfa never managed 75mph without the outside wheels crossing the while line. on sunday i'm going to try hitting this corner at 80mph in the astra. if you dont hear from me on monday then i failed to hold it.
so what does this mean? it means an astra coupe with odd crap quality tyres has better handling than an alfa 156 with good matching tyres. dont get me wrong, the alfa felt a lot better and you know what it was going to do, so you felt safer, but the astra can actually go faster, it just scares the hell out of you because you cant tell if its about to drift out or not.
turning the steering wheel more to correct front end drift was easy on the alfa, so you could have a nice controlled drift all through a bend. the astra doesnt give you enough feedback to even know when the front end has started drifting, you only know its happened when your bumhole starts to palpitate. correcting it is also guesswork, you never really know how much to turn the wheel to hold the drift.
handling ability is all well and good, but without steering wheel feedback you cant really enjoy it. the astra may go round a corner quicker, but i'd still rather be doing it 5mph slower in the alfa.
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