I love the handling in wip3out. ^^ So fluid and fun. It is my favourite wipEout.
I can remember saying pure had lost the fluidity of the classics in a thread about airbraking and side stepping. I know exactly what you are talking about. To me they are just so different in terms of gameplay. I hope the handling characteristics of the old games return but I doubt it will do so in pulse because it uses roughly the same engine and gameplay as pure like Sausehuhn said.