Handling and Cornering are often used to describe the same characteristic, but they are two separate issues. Handling is defined as how the car responses to the driver, handling expresses controllability. Cornering is the amount of centrifugal force the car can generate. Handling is the result of the vehicle/driver combination reacting to a scenario such as – driving around a corner – accident producing situations – moving through a driving exercise – and for us security guys, an ambush. It is important to separate the two when conducting training.
Handling is the car and driver working together, and in a recent article that appeared in the publication Car Driver, Engineers from several of the car manufactures said this about the definition of handling.
Handling is about predictability – The car has to be stable up to the limit of adhesion? – It is what happens when it reaches the limit of adhesion? – Handling is communication between the driver and the car –good handling cars are linear – When the car starts to lose grip – the traction should not fall off the end of a cliff – should not create a surprise
What the engineers are saying is that once the vehicle responds to the drivers input (Braking – Steering – Acceleration or a combination there of) it creates an output. There are three outputs – neutral– over –or under steer. It is how the driver reacts to the vehicles output that defines handling.
The engineer’s are all saying the same thing – what happens to the vehicle’s output at or approaching the limit of its cornering power is what defines handling. To put this into the framework of training I look at what I feel is the most important of the comments “good handling cars are linear”.
A small change in speed will make a big difference in the performance and the level of skill required to control the scenario. These small changes in speed cannot be distinguished with the naked eye or with the speedometer – that is why speed has to be measured with a radar gun or by computer. Judging speed by sitting in the passenger is comical, and irresponsible.
The non linear range of the vehicle can be defined as the place where small increases in steering and speed will make for drastic changes in the vehicles behavior – the student will be driving a different vehicle in a matter of tenths of seconds.
At slower speeds and large radius the vehicle characteristics make very little difference. Therefore there is a low levels of skill required to control the event. These changes can’t be distinguished with the naked eye.
If you are training in the linear range you are not training you are demonstrating
As an instructor you need to know when the car leave the linear range – the instructor need to know at what speed this will happen in every exercises – corner – scenario they ask the student to drive – if not you are not training your entertaining
This is what training is about – training the driver to HANDLE as much as of the CORNERING POWER the car can generate. At TSVDI we call this “Using the Car”. How much of the vehicles Cornering Power can the student Handle.
The of the vehicle is a combination of speed – steering and/or braking where the vehicle reacts as the driver expects it to. The non linear range is a combination of speed – steering and/or braking that creates big changes in the way the vehicle responds, changes that are not expected, and create anxiety. Unless it is a race, the Red Zone is not a place a driver would go to on purpose, it is a place visited only when bad things are happening.
It may be difficult to think of a 10,000 lb armored Suburban as “sensitive”, but a car’s controls are very sensitive to speed, the faster you go, the more sensitive the vehicles braking and steering become. This area of sensitivity is the Red Zone.
Research indicates that going from the linear range to the beginning stages of the Red non linear range, happens with an increase of a fraction of an inch on the steering wheel, and/or an increases of speed as little as 2 MPH. To complicate the issue research has also shown the driver gets into their own personal Red Zone way before the vehicle does. As the driver enters Red Zone the vehicle will send feedback that makes the driver feel uncomfortable (the researcher’s way of saying scared). At this stage of the Red Zone the vehicle is still controllable, but the level of skill needed to keep the vehicle under control has gone up dramatically, and the window of opportunity to maintain control is extremely small.
Look at it as the vehicle has a limit and the driver has a limit. The drivers limit is much lower than the vehicles limit. Basically the driver is uncomfortable with a combination of speed – steering and/or braking that are below the amount of speed – steering and/or braking the vehicle can take.
It is the transition from Comfort to Red that creates a training challenge. In an emergency a driver will be required to quickly transition from their Comfort Zone, into the Red Zone, there can be no hesitation. Common sense dictates that a driver has to be trained to recognize and manage this transition. In our opinion this transition is the essence of driver training. One of the goals of a driver training program is to raise the amount of steering, braking and speed a driver is comfortable with.