All round improvements to tyre and suspension modelling are evident:
you feel the car leaning on the tyres while exiting corners, while the feeling of weight carried through the car gives ample opportunity for naturally correcting power or steering.
Not exact matches
While The Incredibles, Lone Ranger and
Cars sets of Disney Infinity 1.0 were packed with playability, each
felt meandering and purposeless,
leaning heavily on repetitive mini-games and collectibles.
Although they don't
feel as bad as those of some
cars of this age, they're not quite in proportion to the strength of the engine and I wouldn't fancy
leaning the
car's 1431 kg kerb weight on them too hard too often.
Feedback is at a race -
car level and so immediate you find yourself with what
feels like extra time to react, which in turn allows you to
lean on the
car hard using throttle and steering adjustments that are slower than you'd expect.
That sharp front end gives the
car huge pace down a road and that propensity to
lean somehow makes you
feel as though you're travelling at far greater speeds than you really are.
The improvement over the standard
car is immediate, as from the moment you turn into the first corner you can
feel there's more grip to
lean on, and it lasts through the apex and on to the exit.
«I
feel like I should be
leaning down and turning my knee in like I'm on a motorcycle, but it has all the amenities of a
car, so I can balance my way through a corner much easier.»
I still don't believe this rear - biased four - wheel - drive nonsense that Audi goes on about: the RS4 may be the best - balanced, least - understeering
car it has produced since the early 1980s, but it still
feels no more rear - biased than Brigitte Nielsen
leaning over a low guardrail.
After an impressive initial reaction to the first turn of the wheel, the
car then
leans into the suspension as loads increase, which inevitably makes it
feel like the front end is running away from you a little.
There's also some pitch and roll in the chassis, which makes it
feel like much more of a road
car than the AMG, although the damping's beautifully supported so you can actually
lean into it reassuringly and use the suppleness to your advantage.
It can often
feel tempting to downshift an extra gear on the way into a corner, but you're better off
leaning on the readily available mid-range torque and leaving yourself more headroom with the revs as the V12 doesn't have an expansive top end to reach into like the naturally aspirated
cars of old.
This time we drove the diesel Micra to get a
feel of the
car with a
lean burner.
The test
car's 19 - inch wheels and low - profile, 40 - series tires combined with a suspension that resisted understeer and body
lean to imbue the Q3 with a fundamentally sporty
feel.
With the familiar STI shift
feel, strong acceleration and high grip levels, the way the spec.B
leans at the limit is out of character with the rest of the
car.
While the Q3 resists body
lean better than you might expect for a
car of its stature, rivals still
feel more composed on a twisty road.
The suspension, made up of MacPherson struts in front and a multi-link architecture in the rear,
felt springy and compliant, soaking up the rougher spots in the road and letting the
car lean a bit when we took the turns at speed.
The suspension in particular
feels more SUV than sports
car,
leaning over and making the outside wheels in the turns bear much of the burden.
The steering is responsive and precise, and the combination of decent all - round grip and well controlled body
lean during the bends means you can commit the
car to a corner without the Mazda CX - 9
feeling out of its comfort zone.
Tackle corners at speed and there's noticeably less body
lean in corners, so the
car feels more agile.
There's a fair bit of body
lean when driving around corners at speed, the steering
feels light and overly assisted and the gearbox could be a little more precise, but it's generally a relaxing and easy
car to drive.
There's still a little bit of body
lean, but for the most part, the
car feels very well tied down.
You can
lean on the
car's outside wheels as hard as you like through a fast bend without running out of handling balance; hustle the
car into a slower one on trailed brakes and you can
feel the rear axle arc gently but usefully wide to neutralise your cornering line.
Car leans a bit in corners, steering
feel isn't great but grips well.
The Bravo can't match the nimbleness of the best small family
cars because its light steering has an artificial
feel and there's a lot of body
lean in corners.
After three short sessions, my most surprising takeaway about the ZL1 1LE is how non-threatening the
car feels to
lean on.
Highway cruising is where this
car feels most at home, but there is enough steering
feel and controlled
lean to allow the Equus to confidently run through curves without setting off alarm bells.
But Audi
leans toward a luxury
feel, even when the
car is in its Dynamic setting.
There was no flat rotation, the Paceman tending to
feel like any other random
car on the road, giving a bit of outward
lean through the turns.
The suspension ensures there isn't too much body
lean in bends, but this
car can't match the finesse of the Ford Fiesta and doesn't
feel as comfortable cornering quickly.
Body
lean was minimal, and the
car felt stable.
Higher - bodied than a typical sports
car, I wasn't surprised to
feel some
lean in the corners, but the tight suspension and added stabilizer bars mostly kept it under control.
With chassis properly connected, these will prevent your
car from
leaning more to the corners and you will not
feel twitchy.
The
car has a relaxed, easygoing
feel that
leans more toward luxury than sportiness.
It's still very much
leaning toward arcade rather than purely realistic, but the new power units that F1
cars are running does mean they like to try to spin you out under acceleration, far more so than any previous series» entries which makes driving
feel much more fun and challenging.
While it does certainly
lean towards sim racing heavily, there's a definite bit of arcade splashed in there as well, just enough to emphasis the power, weight and handling of the
cars without ever making it
feel like they're not modeled on the real thing.