Quote:
Originally Posted by AeroMcAeroFace
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 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.
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. And if we assume 2.5cm of suspension lift that would take virtually no time for full grip to be achieved.
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Maybe go and drive some cars that have a lot of aerodynamic lift? It's not a good experience at highway speeds, even with 10-15 per cent lift.
In fact, one car I have seen data for (14 per cent rear lift) had control problems on a public road. My mind boggles at how hard it would be at 50 per cent lift!
As I said, driving on ice, aquaplaning (or in my country, 'floating' the tyres over dirt road corrugations) all emulate the effect of having a high aero lift car.
Tyre grip doesn't go down linearly with reduced load:
