What is handling?

You’ve seen it a thousand times before: a car is flung sideways for the camera, smoke pours from the wheel arches as precision-scripted whoops, cackles and titters pour from the presenter’s mouth. What are we looking at, other than a bloke showing off to a captive audience? We’re looking at a fine handling car.

Or are we? Well possibly. In this world where perception occupies the entire centre stage leaving reality to pick the chewing gum off the cheap seats, a car’s ability to point in one direction while being steered in another and simultaneously vaporising a set of tyres now appears to be the ultimate determinant of whether it handles or not. Which, when you think about it, and how real people actually use their cars when there aren’t several million people watching, is really rather curious.