How do you establish vehicle handling targets during the early development phase?

Handling target setting involves: Benchmarking competitive vehicles through objective testing (steady-state cornering, step steer, frequency response, limit handling) and subjective evaluation, correlating objective metrics with subjective ratings, defining segment-appropriate targets for understeer gradient, yaw gain, response time, roll gradient, etc., cascading vehicle-level targets to subsystem specifications (suspension stiffness, damping, bushing rates), creating handling balance diagrams, and validating targets through full-vehicle simulation before prototype build. The process requires cross-functional alignment between dynamics, styling, and cost teams.