What makes a car fun to drive?

For me it’s light weight or toss-able, shorter wheel base, rev happy engine, good steering. There’s also pedal placement and feel, shifter feel, and outward visibility. An overall feeling of connectedness in all controls.

Speed is actually not as much of a factor. Nor is outright grip. One of the things I love about the Festiva is that it has less traction than my Miata.

I am at the point where I get more excited to see rare Econo- cars than exotics. 

And +1 on small trucks. I grew up driving a B2200. That thing was surprisingly fun to drive!

That brings up another point: expectation. I’ve been pretty dissatisfied with some cars that I had high expectations about. I don’t expect a Scion xA to be fun to drive, so it’s easy for it to blow me away when it is.

The most fun cars are always the ones that I'd be willing to abandon. Jump em. Mud pits. Neutral drops. Clutch abuse. Complete lack of mechanical sympathy.

A good one was "I wonder what that panel would look like with bullet holes...".  Now I know. 
 

Other than that, fun to drive usually means light weight and a good exhaust note. 

There are a couple different kinds of fun for me. One thing I always say is that's there's nothing more fun than driving a car sideways. And there's nothing scarier than doing that on accident. 
What that means is a car that in some way or fashion can exceed the grip of the rear tires. I was BLOWN AWAY by the realization last month that I was sad it was spring. Then it hit me that I was going to miss taking snowy corners in the tail happy Saabaru  

The other is like many have said - pushing a slow car to the limits. That's SO fun. Dunno who coined it but the idea of "I'd rather drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow"

the most powerful car I've ever driven was an '03 Terminator. And yes, it was sad to only accelerate for 8 seconds at a time. 
The '96 Metro I had floored for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT?? Jolly good time there. 
 

This really speaks to my thread about getting low grip tires for the Z4...

Well at this point in my life, I somehow only have Jaguars. So, just being able to drive those motherberkeleyers would make them fun lol. 

I totally get the "slow car fast" thing - I've had a lot of fun on track trying to keep a GT3 in sight while driving a 1996 Miata on all-seasons (note I said trying) and I think my last timed track day was in a 91 hp Honda that weighs about 1900 lbs. But there is a lot of entertainment to be had trying to drive a fast car fast as well. The stakes are higher, the challenges are different.

I've had track days where I was jumping back and forth between a 150 rwhp ND with great suspension and sticky tires and a 400+ hp ND with almost identical chassis mods. Both are fun but it's a different sort. The low power car is all about conserving momentum, the high power car is about managing traction and braking, a different set of skills that are no less valid. I know we're all supposed to be purists that worship the high revving lightweight but c'mon, riding herd on a serious power plant is a big thrill. Nobody wants an AC Ace instead of a Cobra :)

Things that make a car fun for me. Not definitive, there are exceptions to all of them, and there are cars that are fun that don't fit any of the criteria:

 - Fast (subjective, and I really mean acceleration)

 - Good handling (subjective)

 - stick shift

 - RWD

 - Sounds cool

 - Convertible

 - old enough that you call it old - a 1998 Lumina wouldn't count, but an E30 would  

 - Really big (F250) or really small small. 
- super light 

Luxury doesn't do enough on its own, but it can help the cause. 

Oh gee, all kinds of things are fun.

Tossing a small sporty car around is entertaining, but so is loafing down the road in a big old American boat or bouncing around in a beater pickup truck.

I also enjoy a car that accelerates fast enough to make me giggle.

I think there are a bunch of factors that make a car fun to drive. Sometimes just one of those factors is enough if it's really good at it, sometimes a combo of those factors make for a fun car...

Lightweight

Manual transmission 

Good handling 

Steering feel

Power

Power delivery 

Gearing 

Lots of grip

Lack of grip 

Sensation of speed

Sound- bonus for turbo noises, supercharger whine, intake noise. 

The simple test for me to see if it is a fun car- does it change how I drive? Do I take the long way home? Do I hope the light turns red? Do I drive 2 miles farther to the fun on-ramp? 

My Miata is very different from my Galant VR4, and both provide different kinds of fun. The Miata is light and precise. Despite having 1/3 the power, it is much more likely to bite you in the ass than the VR4. You need to work hard to maintain speed. It's also easy to have fun a lower speeds. The VR4 is silly fun. A lot more power, and feels like it has even more due to the "surprise!" nature of a large-ish turbo. Sitting up in the large 80's greenhouse, it feels like a rolling cartoon. But when it's time to get down to business, it responds the opposite of the Miata. You have to drive it stupid to get the most of it, in a manner that would have the Miata spinning like a top. Where the Miata rewards patience, the VR4 begs to be slapped around. Both cars make each other more fun because I enjoy the differences. 

Character. If it enables you to do bad E36 M3, it's fun. Out of the new cars I've driven over the past year, here are a few that stand out:

Porsche Taycan - incredibly precise, makes spaceship noises, will make you feel like a god. Who doesn't love feeling like a god while making spaceship noises?

Challenger Hellcat - batE36M3 berkeleying crazy, far more power than chassis, when EVs are omnipresent our grandchildren will say "that was insane." Lights up faster than an art school sophomore. 25 lbs of motor in a 5 lb car. Somehow also a kitty cat that'll let you indulge in tire-shredding buffoonery without it ever feeling uncontrollable.

Nissan Kicks - For a modern car, it weighs as much as a gnat. Skinny tires mean you can corner on the limits everywhere. Surprisingly fast steering. Wonderfully unsanitized driving compared to most of today's novocaine-numb economy cars. Enough NVH that you feel something, dammit.

Sonata N-Line - Absolute heaps of torque, open diff allows for one-tire fires from 40 MPH, PCM logic only cuts ignition on full-throttle upshifts keeping you in the boost while cracking off amusingly sharp shifts from the wet-clutch DCT, surprisingly good steering for a mainstream car with EPS.

Lexus LC 500 - Thunderous V8 NASCAR soundtrack, surprisingly sharp chassis, so much leather inside that it makes you feel like a pornographer, well-controlled ride, whip-crack shifts from the 10AT, steering isn't bad either. Supervillain energy.

The new G63 - Basically a rocket-propelled luxury tower block, rears up like a bronco at full chat, rack-and-pinion means you can actually steer it, sides so flat it feels like a postbox, side pipes!, fun because there's absolutely no reason for something like it to be this quick and loud.

Jetta GLI - Very planted, gutsy turbo four, 540TW tires are quite playful, 7-speed DCT is quite fast, decent steering, refined enough to not appear anti-social. A bulldog pumped-up small car in a suit.

Honda Civic Type R - Compromised without being unlivable. Decent seats and sound deadening plus a reasonably comfortable ride, yet no middle seat in the back, love-it-or-hate-it styling and a fairly sparse toy set. Unbelievably cohesive. Front-wheel-drive cars shouldn't drive like this. So neutral, great steering, e-LSD is magic, no torque-steer, snick-snick short shifter, digital boost gauge that displays boost and vacuum in units, shift lights, heaps of power, if Porsche's GT division built a Golf, it would be like this.

All cars where adequate handling and power would be enough to be a decent car, but that secret sauce makes them feel that much more special.

I think fun to drive come from being different.

We regularly call the normal cars appliances. Thats because 99 percent of stuff on the road has pretty much the same driving experience, soft, quiet, safe, and the driving experience requires almost no engagement.

The sporty stuff is not the norm so it's fun.

The fast stuff is not the norm so it's fun.

Stick a manual in a normal modern appliance and it completely changes the car, it's different and engagement goes way up

Big old cars from the 50s are fun to drive but rarely sporty, but they are completely different from todays cars, they dont stop well, the engine is loud and shakes, and they handle like garbage but I have a blast just crusiing in them.

I guess what I'm saying is I enjoy driving pretty much anything different, that includes all classics, any survivors from the eighties and up, muscle cars, pony cars, and sports cars.

I love driving my old GMT400 and I don't know if it's because I'm keeping an old truck on the road or because it drives like an old truck and not like a modern car, which is how a new truck drives.

My one caveat is I love the Kia Telluride. It drives like an appliance but it's so pretty

Tom1200 said:

Lightweight...............because you can do all sorts of wrong things with them.

Revvy motor..............even if the car only goes 78 mph, if the motor revs freely it adds to the hooligan feel.

Skinny tires................because it makes it child paly to find the limit and just hang the car there all day long.

User Friendly...........if the car bites back that sucks the fun right out of it (see my note below)

Over the years I been fortunate enough to drive things like 911 GT3-RS to 700HP Vipers, as well as some very rapid single seat race cars. These cars are may be a huge adrenalin rush and I may enjoy driving them but they are not what I'd call fun. You need to take them seriously or they will hurt you. 

 

I agree with all this, it's probably the reason why the zx2 is so much fun.

It's not fast, although it's faster than you'd think but it's very over braked and the handling is never outdone by the speed it can get to.  Screw up a little bit and you are still well within the braking and handling margin of error.

I really enjoy driving mine

Lightweight 

manual shift

manual steering

great brakes 

short wheel base

updated firm suspension

very high revving dependable motor

fairly loud exhaust

simple

In reply to mdshaw :

Nice........looks like fun.

Wife's brand new base 1990 240sx man 5 spd coupe was kind of fun to drive. It was a capable car if you played your cards right.

It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, then a fast car slow.

Going to be something different to every person.  I ditched a 600+ HP Caddy to drive a sub 100hp honda kei car.  Slow car fast is my style, more fun on that ragged edge.  But I also added a little kei van that does 0-60 on a calendar scale, cant handle for E36 M3 and has no redeeming qualities.  What it does require is a driver.....you are always on, always driving and that is something often missing from cars.  Keeping you fully involved in the experience at all times has an appeal.

But some 200 cars into my adventure, what makes one fun to drive?  Who knows, they are all fun in their own way, so maybe we make our own fun therefore we are what makes a car fun to drive :)

Of all the vehicles I've owned, 95 Geo Metro was one of the most fun to drive. 55 horsepower and skinny tires made for some entertaining driving.

What colour is music?

For me:

- adequate power, braking, and handling for the application.
- feedback from the car to the driver... which can be either due to things like manual steering and noises from tires, or it can be completely intuition.   As long as it talks back to me, it doesn't matter if it's through direct communication (tire squeal, brake fade limits, steering threshhold) or intuitive/deductive means.

All of this could fit an E30, or a 1978 MC8 motor coach.  The E30 gives you direct feedback through the physical things you feel in the wheel and pedals.  The MC8 gives it to you from thousands of miles of learning that the noise you're hearing is the air compressor on the 8V92 likes to rattle at 2200 rpms, or that the brake shoes let you know that they're starting to glaze over by giving a wee chatter.  You learn how to squeeze every last mph out of climing that mountain because you have selected when to stab the throttle at the bottom and exactly what speed you downshift because you know what each individual gear change will do for the RPMs.  If you downshift from 4 to 3 at 55, that puts you precisely at 100 rpms below redline so you're falling through the peak torque and the turbo is singing, then you downshift from 3 to 2 at exactly 41 mph for redline, unless you see a level spot coming up, then you know that it's better to stay in 3rd to avoid the 1 mph hit to take from the jerky downshift of the Allison.

The E30 is the girl you meet at a party and know right away that you're going to have a really deep meaningful encounter.  The motor coach is the wife you get to know over 20 years and know everything about what makes her tick.  Both are fun.

One thing I personally can't do... underpowered.  I know, cars can be fun with too little power, but I hate being in a wimpy car.  The only thing that saved my ex-wife's xB was the 4.27 gearing and the relatively close ratio manual.   For a track car, I get it.  But people like me spend nearly all of their time on the street and highway.

I can always not floor an overpowered car if I don't need to, but (as a hot rodder who used to build monster engines) I want the OPTION of really needing 12-wide sticky rubber and stiff-sprung Eaton posi because it's the only thing keeping your tail end from suddenly being in front at 80 mph.

I think the most fun car I ever drove was my 84 S10 SWB grocery getter with a warmed over LS1/T56.  It still had the factory 14s and 185mm whitewalls.  That thing was just insane.  No radio, no A/C, no nothing, and what a hoot.  It did nothing well, but it was nearly perfect for me.  Manual steering, good brakes, and ALL THE POWER.  Fun watching a brand new Mustang disappear in the rear view mirror in a $1200 truck while sitting in a puddle of my own sweat on vinyl seats.

aircooled said:

It's more fun to drive a slow car fast, then a fast car slow.

It's also fun to drive a fast car fast. This option is rarely discussed. 

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

One thing I personally can't do... underpowered.  I know, cars can be fun with too little power, but I hate being in a wimpy car.  The only thing that saved my ex-wife's xB was the 4.27 gearing and the relatively close ratio manual.   For a track car, I get it.  But people like me spend nearly all of their time on the street and highway.

I agree, underpowered cars suck on the street.  Especially on the highway. 

The first car that really struck me as fun to drive was my mother's 1990 Civic DX sedan. It was not powerful, but it was a stripped-to-the-bones base model with a 5-speed. Even on skinny tires, the suspension was pretty damn good (as we know) and it had a character that just wanted more. I drove that thing hard, and while the raw numbers probably weren't anything impressive, it always put a smile on my face. It eventually got me into autocrossing, where with mods, it just got more fun.

My Fiesta ST puts a similar, if much bigger, smile on my face. I feel like I am wearing the car, it is light (2750#) and responsive with a great 6-speed. It makes every drive a joy, even if the data says it is slower than faster cars, from the driver's seat I have not enjoyed anything else as much.

Keith Tanner said:

It's also fun to drive a fast car fast. This option is rarely discussed. 

So on that note:

For the street it's not really possible to drive a fast car fast, you can get little taste here and there but never truly enjoy it to the fullest. It's pretty much akin to going to a rib joint with your soon to be vegan ex-girlfriend, you just know you are going to get into so much trouble, so you really don't enjoy it.

For the track we get into the semantics of what is fast; fast for you or what the car will actually do. I've said fast cars are not "fun" in the hooligan sense of the word, they need to be taken seriously, you do not play around in these cars. In this context we probably need to define fast;GT3-RS, SCCA P2 sports racer or Trans Am car, 700hp Viper etc. the likelihood of having things come off the rails is much higher in a fast car and like it or not that takes away some of the fun.

I define fun as the ability to play around at will; once the car is well beyond the skill set of the driver this goes away, one might enjoy the faster car but it's still not as much fun as being able to play with the limits of the car at will. 

Driving fast on the street is basically just a measure of how stupid you're willing to be. But this is a motorsports forum, so the track is an option to us :) I knew that would get called out. And I would still enjoy those ribs.

Nothing wrong with a car that makes you pay attention. We're going to start having to define "fun" soon. For some in this thread, it's about being able to destroy things without caring. For others, it's involvement. Or maybe it's the satisfaction of meeting a challenge. I don't enjoy driving composed slow cars on my local track much anymore because I just go on autopilot, there's nothing to do. Give me a car with some handling...quirks or a good power/weight ratio and it gets fun again until the car is too fast for the track.

And a slow car slow on the street can be fun, too. My big ol' Cadillac is in that group, it just wants to burble around and puts a big smile on my face when doing that. So "slow car fast" is a knee-jerk gearhead mantra, but it's just wrong.

When driving something with a large performance envelope on the street, part of the fun comes from knowing that in most situations, you can literally do whatever you want and you'll always back off due to thinking "wow, I'm being an irresponsible dipE36 M3" long before you find the car's limits and potentially get yourself into an ugly situation.