The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100,000

The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100,000 The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100,000
Comparison Tests

As it relates to cars, the term “handling” is as loosely defined as “talent” is in the music biz. We’d probably all agree that, in both cases, some players have more than others, but the justifications as to why often tend toward the abstract.

Throughout these 10 pages, however, we will endeavor to give shape to this nebulous concept. We’ll carefully scrutinize and dissect the intricacies of what usually is listed simply as a 10-point category called “handling” in our comparison-test scoring, one that often doesn’t get a whole lot of explanation. This time, nothing else matters.

Is handling about skidpad g’s or lane-change speed? How about lap times? Even though we performed all those exercises for this test, none is a guarantee of good handling, or even a decent indicator. Skidpad grip is an objective measurement that can be easily improved with a change of tires, and horsepower has a way of overshadowing numerous deficiencies at a racetrack.

What we’re looking for here is the subjective. Handling is all about cohesion and predictability, how a car’s various subsystems come together. A typical byproduct is a very high level of driver confidence. Does the steering weight increase in a manner that makes it perfectly clear how much of the tires’ grip is being used? Is the car stable and predictable all the way to the limit of adhesion, or does it do something unexpected? And when the limit is reached, does the front end lose grip first, or does the rear, or both simultaneously? Is the action of the brake pedal linear and consistent, providing precisely the intended stopping force, no more and no less? There are more ancillary factors to consider, too, such as the seat. Is it up to the task of  keeping the driver in place?

Even with today’s ever-more-sophisticated test gear and enormous amounts of computing power, it’s interesting to hear from some of the best in the business [see “Revealing the Mysteries of Great-Handling Cars”] that no magic collection of data has yet to replace good old-fashioned, seat-of-the-pants driving evaluations and lots of trial and error. Which is why our finishing order depends solely on the opinions—split into 14 categories—of seven finely calibrated backsides among our ranks, who have driven just about everything.

Nevertheless, with the help of the handling experts at Cayman Dynamics, we spent three full days at a proving ground, performing objective tests in addition to our standard skidpad and lane-change maneuvers. Our goal: to use that data to explain more clearly what we were experiencing behind the wheel [see “Measuring Handling”]. We also burned a day lapping Waterford Hills raceway—a tight, 1.5-mile track chosen specifically to reduce the influence of horsepower. In addition to presenting overall lap times, we calculated a “cornering” lap time (by digitally erasing the straightaway portions of each car’s best lap with our VBox testing software) in another attempt to uncover handling overachievers.

Possibly even tougher than defining handling was culling the invitation list. In order to keep this from being a nosebleed-expensive supercar shootout, we set a price cap, as we do with our annual 10Best competition; in this case, base prices had to be less than $100,000. Then we had a lively boardroom vetting process to choose from our favorites—10Best winners, comparo champs—making sure we had representatives from all of the major driveline configurations.

So, for once, we don’t care about horsepower, acceleration, top speed, or price—of which there was a range of nearly $70K. And despite the fact that we spent far more on gas than we did on food and hotels during our rather conspicuous, 1300-mile drive through southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, fuel economy is irrelevant here, too. We also did our best to resist distraction—it wasn’t easy—from things such as the Nissan GT-R’s brilliantly quick-shifting dual-clutch gearbox and the Corvette Z06’s new exhaust note, which has been cranked up even louder than last year’s wake-the-dead volume.

As with any test that involves a herd of high-performance cars and our risk-seeking staff, there were a few casualties. More noteworthy than the predictable destruction of almost $10,000 worth of summer tires was a reckless-driving ticket awarded to our design director, for piloting what appeared to be a clown car—one camerman sprouting out of the sunroof and another protruding from a side window to capture video—at a screaming 15 mph. Making the incident that much more hilarious to everyone except the perp was the fact that the officer belonged to the Fish and Wildlife force and was driving a K-9 unit with a boat in tow.

But back to handling. Here’s how the seven cars stacked up in our seventh ­handling test in the magazine’s 55 years. Go figure: Our champ is one of the most fuel efficient, falls well below our pricing ­threshold, is far from the quickest around the track, and rides on nothing more glamorous than struts at all four corners.