g

A unit of measurement for lateral acceleration, or "road-holding." One "g" is equivalent to 981 cm (32.2 feet) per second every second, the rate at which any object accelerates when dropped at sea level. If a car were cornering at 1.0 g -- a figure that very few production cars are able to approach -- the driver's body would be pushing equally hard against the side of the seat as against the bottom of it. Most fast sedans accelerate about 0.8 g.