Let me disect this more thoroughly
Originally Posted by
Drunken Master
You clearly believe everything you read on the internet or watch. Understeer isn't present at all on any modern performance FWD cars given the fact you can drive.
Yes driver input is an important factor, but surely the fact seemed to be that the general consensus is that the Vauxhall is more prone to understeer than the Ford? A fact that didn't seem to win it friends in the motoring press compared to it's rivals.
Originally Posted by
Drunken Master
Lotus design lots of vauxhall suspension so hardly them getting it wrong and handing it to them. More along the lines of getting it right from the start.
To be honest, that comment was meant more in jest than anything, as it's a great way to bait Vauxhall fans. It never fails. Like telling them the only good cars Vauxhall have produced were the Lotus Carlton and the VX, both of which were Lotus'
Originally Posted by
Drunken Master
The only thing missing was when lotus designed the car they designed it to be used with a rear anti roll bar which wasn't used to make it safer to the public and to premote more understeer (like basically any road going car).
Can't say I've heard that before myself. Seems like a poor decision by Vauxhall, something that was ill thought through? Surely tweaking the anti roll settings would have been more clever, to give it more neutral or understeer biased handling. That suggests to me, that Vauxhall made a poor technical decision that made the car worse than it could have been.
Originally Posted by
Drunken Master
The Vxr was also designed to be used with 18 inch wheels vauxhall decided to come up with some heavy flashy 19's which make the ride more crashy. The focus isn't a better handling car despite what you may read it's very nose heavy.
Are the 19s not optional? I thought they came with 18s as standard? I might be wrong of course, just thought I'd seen some with 18s and some with the 19s on.
I can't say I've ever heard of the Focus being described as nose heavy before now. Perhaps personal opinion playing a part?
I think the proof of it is in how many you see. I see Focus ST's every day, in abundance, and yet, the Astra VXR, which I thought was cheaper, and apparently quicker in a straight line, you see very few of by comparison. So unless Stafford is just unusually devoid of Astra VXRs, then the sales figures speak for themselves.
I can't say I've driven either, I'm just going on what I've read/heard from owners, my own experiences on car set up and manufacturer's marketing, partly playing devil's advocate, and partly just causing trouble