I realize the author goes super hard into actual physical vehicle hardware components, but every time I think about super good feeling vehicles in video games, I think about how ridiculous the Warthog in Halo 1 feels, but the vehicle physics in that game seems to make almost no sense, and when vehicles go flying it's hilarious and absurd, and I wish some developer from the Halo 1 days of Bungie would talk about it.

I recall the Warthog and other vehicles actually defining some specific properties about vehicles like RPM and gear ratio, at least I think, because in first person you'd see some of those properties reflected in the dashboard of say the Warthog, or you'd hear it in the audio for a covenant vehicle.

But wow, man, what great feeling vehicles. Nothing else like it in the industry, in my opinion. The ridiculous feeling of vehicles in Grand Theft Auto 4 came really close, but those seemed to be much, much more detailed from vehicular motion and damage-taking perspectives.

Halo 1 featured a custom physics engine sometimes called Chucky Physics due to its creator Charlie Gough. Bungie switched to Havoc in the following titles.

I completely agree that the Warthog in Halo 1 felt the best, by far.

Have you played Warthog Launch? It makes satire of the game physics.