[masraum]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

I'm just asking from a physics standpoint, what difference does it make (if any?) to the car's handling if you are taking a curve in neutral vs with engine in gear, coasting (if you like assume it's a slight downhill curve to keep speed constant, also assume not at the limit but quick enough that you'd wanna be in gear, and finally let's say a cayman to avoid rear engine arguments).

neutral vs coasting in gear - coasting in gear will involve engine braking (and aero drag and friction drag) vs coasting in neutral which only has aero drag and friction drag which are likely far less than engine braking. From that point of view, I believe that coasting out of gear would produce better, more neutral (no pun intended) handling than coasting in gear.

It sure feels "odd" and less stable if if happens and you ever missed a gear entering a corner... Is it, though ? from a tire/grip standpoint I can't explain why it would be worse or why the car would care at all assuming you are within the grip limits - if anything there would be lower demands from the driving tires, so more "circle of friction" % rubber available for lateral grip. Not at the limit (yet not slow), shouldn't it feel 100% similar and corner the same? Sure doesn't feel like that to me, feel terrible... Just wondering if we had physics gurus here ;-)

I coasting out of gear, you'd not have any tires doing anything but steering/tracking. I'm not sure what the effect would be at the limit since I've never tried it remotely near the limit. I'm sure that turning the front wheels will scrub speed and initiate deceleration. I would assume that at least initially, most of that deceleration is going to be on the front tires. It seems like that would be especially bad at the limit with a rear or even mid-rear engined car. If you aren't used to that happening without the ability to dial things in with the gas pedal, it might be weird. I assume you could train yourself to take corners like that, there may be some alignment or suspension settings that you could adjust to work better in that situation. Or maybe the upset would be so short settling into deceleration due to tire scrub at both ends of the car that it wouldn't matter as long as your steering input was smooth enough.