Let’s see.  We’ve got five senses to work with when we’re driving.  What are they again?  Oh yeah.  Taste, smell, sight, hearing and touch.  Only three really count when we’re driving.  Sight, to an extent hearing – and yup.  Touch.  You’ve got to “Feel the Car”!

If we’ve got a drivers license, we’ve probably had our vision checked and at least the bureaucrats feel we can see beyond the windshield.  This is good – and very useful when we’re operating our machines at any speed outside of the driveway.

Hearing is also nice to have as we boogie along, although not quite as necessary.  Yes, hearing can alert us to sounds such as sirens or maybe screeching tires followed by loud crunching metal, but most people who drive hearing impaired learn to compensate with their other senses.  Yup, they feel the car.

Taste and smell are probably not really useful driving tools unless you haven’t already noticed the smoke bellowing from the engine compartment.     

But touch?  Hmmm.  "Feeling" the car gets kind of interesting.

To a race car driver, feeling the car is huge.  He feels the G’s as he moves into a turn, the front tires biting (or not biting) as he works the wheel.  He’s alert to those rears tires too.  Are they sliding out from under him?  How are the brakes?  Are they spongy?  Fading? 

How is the air in the tires affecting his control?  Is he loose or tight because of a couple of pounds of tire pressure?  The race car driver feels everything about his machine — especially how it interacts with the road surface he’s working on.

For us every day drivers though, our sense of touch or feel might not seem quite as important.  We’re rarely pushing the vehicle to its limits.  If we think about how the buggy feels at all, we’re mostly concerned with “butt comfort”.  But being sensitive to how our car feels, is important.

If something’s obviously wrong (a flat tire or broken tie rod), yeah, we’ll definitely feel it but we just might not pick up on something more subtle — unless we’re consciously “in touch” with our ride.

So what can we focus on feeling, when we hop into our car?  Primarily, we want to feel how it’s interacting with the road.

If we tap on the go pedal and it just isn’t going quite as smoothly or quickly as it used to, we might want to book a tune up, but if we seem to be noticing bumps in the road more than usual, or we bounce and keep on bouncing when we hit that bump or pothole, a check of the struts or shocks just could be in order

We hit the brakes and they vibrate.  This could be a bent brake rotor.  It’s pulsing when we push the pads against it.  This also suggests the tire is pulsing on the road, and will break traction more quickly than it should.  Perhaps the rotor’s really bad news.  Maybe it’s ready to crack and leave us with “Whoops! No Brakes.”

Maybe we turn the wheel, and that power steering isn’t quite so powerful.  Nope, the tire may not be flat, but it could be down a few pounds.  Many of today’s low profile tires won’t look flat when they’re a bit soft, but you can sure feel it — if you focus on “feeling it”.

Low air pressure in those puppies will also create over steer or under steer – depending on which corner of the buggy the little softies reside.  If you turn into a curve on the highway and your buggy just doesn’t seem to turn quite like it used to, suspect a tire and have it checked before it blows out, blowing you — into a center divider. 

Do you need a wheel alignment?  If your car is pulling to one side you might – or it might be another brake issue.  Vibrations are rarely good, especially if they appear when leaning into a curve at speed.  The can be caused by many things suspension, or even worse, a bubble in the tire.

Finally, there’s the weather.  We all deal with rain and snow but what if you’re bucking a serious headwind?  Is that headwind lifting up your front end?  If so, those steering tires just might not react as they normally do.  You’ll turn into a curve and the car won’t want to.  You’re “pushing” (under steering).  Make a note as you negotiate the next curve.

Road conditions?  You can usually feel hydroplaning before it gets serious.

A race driver always relies on the “feel of his car” but let’s think about it.  If we’re hurling two tons of metal down the highway at seventy or better, can we afford not — to “feel the car”?

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