I have seen the Le Mans cars take off, but they were aerodynamically unstable in the pitch direction, that could be corrected if designed properly. I was more focussing on really low drag cars where the rolling resistance is more significant.
One of the proposed solutions for the Le Mans cars was suspension connected wings, that would alter their angle of attack as the suspension compressed. I see no reason why that couldn't be done here to maintain a consistent level of "hover". Wheel goes light or comes off the ground, the suspension droops, pushing the wing angle of attack way down into negative lift.
With stiff enough suspension, the rebound rate would be more than fast enough. No servos needed for pitch control. (Although cornering and braking servos or hydraulics would be neccessary)
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I speculate that the risk assessment, so far, to any venture like this, has been shot down by corporate liability attorneys. Too much pain, for whatever perceived gain.
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I think you are right there. And I do agree than commercially it would never be possible. But for something like a solar car with lots of batteries or similar, where the aerodynamic drag is very low, but the rolling resistance is high and the car travels really fast.
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Cars get REALY unstable when aerodynamic lift happens.
But there are vehicles that operate on aerodynamic lift alone for most of the travel distance.
We call them "planes", some of wich can be pretty efficient, especialy when you also use thermals to gain altitude.
Gliders can gain up to 10m/s when circling in thermals above powerplants
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But that is only because they aren't designed to lift. Planes go too high and so can't be wheel powered, but something like an ekranoplan is a better comparison
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Originally Posted by M_a_t_t
I would think the induced drag would outweigh any benefits in fuel economy gained by lowering the rolling resistance.
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You may be right, but considering generally, very low drag cars are shaped like an aerofoil to reduce drag, but then have to add spoilers to counteract the lift, it seems possible to me.
In the never ending template debate, which we won't resurrect, it was revealed how high the coefficient of lift was for this "optimum" shape.