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It's only friction with the ground that provides ALL of a car's propulsive, braking and cornering forces. You can easily experience what a car that is only just in contact with the ground would be like by driving on a surface with almost no friction (like on ice, or aquaplaning with all four wheels on water). Basically, impossible to control.
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So, to get full ground contact again, the body needs to drop down what is the suspension lift. Lets say 30 cm. It takes 0,25 s to drop 30 cm by free fall. So, from the instant you "disable the lift" it still takes 0,25 s till your brakes or steering begin to work. Not worth the risk.
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I think both of you are misunderstanding my proposal, I am
not suggesting
floating cars, or turning cars into flying planes or hovering ekranoplans, I am suggesting partially lifting cars.
Such that the force pushing down on the wheels is
reduced to say 50% of static force. The wheels still provide the drive and steering (though maybe assisted by control surfaces).
We just have wings that take some of the weight off the tyres. (thread title changed to reduce confusion)
Assuming 50% weight reduction would still give 50% of the grip and that is excluding other control surfaces. Brakes would be airbrake assisted that also increase downforce like an SLR or Huayra.
Modern cars on a skidpan manage 1g lateral grip, that would mean that with 50% of the weight removed (excluding control surfaces) that 0.5g of lateral grip is instantly achievable, pushing up to 1g if lift is cancelled and maybe 1.5g with downforce.
Even in "lift mode" that would still give 70% of the cornering speed for the same radius.
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Originally Posted by seifrob
say your car is lifted "just to touch". So, to get full ground contact again, the body needs to drop down what is the suspension lift. Lets say 30 cm. It takes 0,25 s to drop 30 cm by free fall. So, from the instant you "disable the lift" it still takes 0,25 s till your brakes or steering begin to work.
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Car is lifted so weight is reduced, that is maybe a few cm of travel, I have never seen a 30cm free fall suspension but maybe that is for huge cars. Steering works at all speeds if only 50% of the weight is off the wheels.
And if we assume 2.5cm of suspension lift that would take virtually no time for full grip to be achieved, just through gravity.
Freebeard, I think lifting the rear wheel is clever but not really what I am talking about here, because that would be quite susceptible to the pit manoeuvre, or potholes, or crosswinds