Best Overall Handling Car

If none of the cars up there tell me what cars you think are the best for under around 6k?

My vote goes to the mr-2. It's the only car in there that's really known for it's handling, plus it's mid rear

Lets see...

1. MR2 = great handling with a well trained driver who knows the car.
2. Camaro = good handling but no where near the level of the Corvette
3. Integra = FF, nuff said
4. GSX = Im not a fan of DSM suspensions.
5. 5.0 Mustang = they can get very interesting when modified.

Either way, what do you mean by "best handling" What class of handling are you talking about? Stability in the 1/4? A good circuit race car? AutoX?

AutoX where I can take a nice ride through the country have it gunned and will have to worry least about it not being able to handle the twisties. I dont care as much for speed as long as the handling can make up for it. I love the country roads.

Camaro and Mustangs have live rear axles, handling not nearly what it could be.

Hondas are amazing Front Wheel Drive chassis' the handling is up with most rear-drive layouts.

The Eclipse?? Never driven one, but AWD grip could count for something

The Mr2 has the proper layout, so naturally, that is really the way to go, only problem is, that it's WAY too heavy for waht it is.

imo the eclipse would have better handling cuz of its awd, and yes the mr2 is mid-engine, but the mr2 looks to skinny to have as good handling as an eclipse. thats my 2 cents.

From my own experience, having owned a 93 gt and buddy having an MR2 and letting me drive it, I'd give the big nod to the MR2. That little frickin car handles like those cyber bikes on tron.

My friend has a MR2 (non-turbo) and damn, this thing handles good. I've been with him when he and a 5.0 went through the twisties. Needless to say....the 5.0 wasn't anywhere to be seen...

MR2 turbo or non...will outhandle anything on that list

MR2, but a better suggestion would be a 240sx.....those can be very well handling cars.....for cheap.

MR2 turbo or non...will outhandle anything on that list

Word, I'll vouge for that. The 240 is one heck of a car, but given the choice, I'd take the MR2 based on pure performing, unless you put to much power into it. Then the extra power begins to be another problem to compensate with trying to keep the wheels where they belong. But I guess that goes with any car when you reach certain hp boundries.

im gonna give my opinions on good, and bad for all those cars listed there. first for the mustang, and the camaro, although they have solid rear axles, i believe they can be tuned to handle well, but its limited to quick left to right turns, and overall turning compared to indep suspensions. the mr2 is a really good handling car with midengine layout, ive driven one, its a really good autocross car, one thing i dont really like about it, is that it has struts all around. the 91-92 mr2s were esp known for spinning out easily, but the 93+ got a revised suspension, and got rid of it a little more, it made it more predictable at the limits. for the gsx, i think that if its tuned right, it should handle well, the gen 2 eclipses has double wishbone all around, but it has that awd weight to it. still i think it could be tuned to handle just as well as the evo, since its a little lighter than it, and i think that the 2nd gen eclipses actually has the better front suspension, cause the evo has strut type on the front. for the integra, i think this cars one of the best handling front wheel drive cars out there, its steering is sharp, and its shifter is really smooth, great engineering in it. the thing i really dont like about this car, is that its fwd, but i dont think its really that bad for handling, cause its been known to beat rwd cars, like the mr2, and bmws. since its fwd, its dominant trait should be understeer, but with good tuning, it ll barely be there, and i think its great how it has double wishbone all around, just like any other cars like that. 240sx, i havent driven one of these, but i wouldnt mind taking it for a test drive, from what ive read, it seems to be a really good cornering car.

Well how well do the 93 MR2s easy to spin? What makes the struts all the way around a bad thing for it?

Well how well do the 93 MR2s easy to spin? What makes the struts all the way around a bad thing for it?

well it doesnt spin out easily, its just that it happens at a quicker rate, so its harder to recover from it, a good driver should be able to avoid a spin out. midengined cars tends to spin out easier than f/r cars, but that doesnt mean its not as good at handling, its gripping limit could be higher for the m/r, but it usually accelerates to a spin quicker. i would say the mr2 is one of those less forgiving cars, but you just gotta get used to its characteristics, less weights at the ends of the car usually means easier/quicker steering response, that quickness is whats favored in midengined cars, but it also usually means quicker spinouts. for the struts, they tend to get positive camber under load, where the top part of the wheel archs slightly outwards causing less grip, or loss of grip which i believe happens to the rear wheels of the early mr2s during hard cornering, some people favor this more oversteer type thing though, but i dont cause its less predictable. double wishbone setups usually gets postive camber, where the top part of the wheel goes inwards which is favored for grip in hard conering. now this doesnt mean that cars with struts wont handle good, its just that i think it would be better if it had a double wishbone setup. if i remember correctly, some article stated that the early mr2s 91-92 had a design flaw in the rear suspension geometry, cause it spun out too eaisly or something, and that the arms were too short, so toyota lengthened it for the 93+ ones, and pretty much fixed the problem. even if this is the case for the 91-92, they still handle well, and do really good at autocross, if you want a good handling car, its not a bad choice. if you want the rear suspension on the 93 for a 91-92 mr2, you can do it, its a direct bolt on. overall, this car handles better than most cars, i think it handles better than all those cars you listed stock, even better when it first came out, look how old it is, 10+ yrs old, and it still handles really good.

by the way, i voted for the 93 mr2.

i actually like how the rear of the mr2 slips a bit and its really easy to correct.. all you do is point the wheel where you wanna go and it goes there... it is actually pretty forgiving if you dont panic and over react

Camaro and Mustangs have live rear axles, handling not nearly what it could be.

Hondas are amazing Front Wheel Drive chassis' the handling is up with most rear-drive layouts.

The Eclipse?? Never driven one, but AWD grip could count for something

The Mr2 has the proper layout, so naturally, that is really the way to go, only problem is, that it's WAY too heavy for waht it is.

You have got to be kidding me

Kidding you on what exactly???

Pretty much all of it, Since when does AWD aid HANDLING any? traction exiting a turn perhaps, but beyond that it causes push entering a turn and increases unsprung weight by a large amount. Beyond that, AWD eclipses are still primarily FWD, not only is the whole driveline in the engine bay the front wheels recieve a larger amount of power.

Live axles may hurt the car if it ever reaches LeMans level racing on a rough surface, but until you begin to make 1 wheel ride much higher then another you don't run into any issues with using solid axle. Thats easily solved by limiting suspension travel, alas it'll never work for rally racing. In fact, the fact that these admittedly heavy cars have solid axles helps them keep rear traction, downard loading of the tires through body roll has no negative effects on camber like it does on an IRS setup.

and I misread what you said about hondas, I still havent ever ridden nor driven one that comes close to a proper RWD setup, but nevermind there.

i have not only seen it on here, but heard it form other people and read it in magazines that solid rear axles makes handling not so good. but hey, if tons of people are lying and you are correct, then i'll be damned.

i want to drive a mr2 now reading all the posts. it sounds like a fun car to drive.

A solid rear axle doesn't necessarily make a bad handling car. It can be tuned to perform relativly well. Just like IRS systems. A postive thing about a solid rear axle would be that body roll will not effect the camber of your wheels. However, unsprung weight always seems to be an issue on non-independent axles leading to a poor ride quality.

well what about for power? I know the Z28 has to be the next thing LT1 are some 275 horses at the crank, so what about if its for a straight shot?

I like other cars around that price range that are better.