Maps of Achievable Performance: A New General Tool for Vehicle Handling Analysis

MAPs are two-dimensional representations of potentially any pair of vehicle-related variables. MAPs provide the reader with an at-a-glance grasp of any possible steady-state condition achievable by a vehicle, identified by a region in the chosen two-dimensional plane. Level curves depicted inside the achievable region allow to include information on a third variable of interest. After presenting how to build a generic MAP, this paper analyzes several MAPs for three case-study vehicles, providing new insights to be grasped and harnessed by vehicle dynamicists.