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"How Does the Driver Control the Car?" is new perspective on vehicle handling. Those involved in performance driving and car suspension set up have an abstract model of handling in their heads. that at some point, might not match physical reality. We need a common way of thinking that gets us closer to the reality of how the car works.
nThe
article explores the notion of the attitude angle, or float
angle, being the
primary source of feedback to the driver.
The driver can feel the change in attitude of the car,
over and above the expected attitude angle generated by the
vehicle when in neutral steer.
The driver is extremely sensitive to the car balance, but
largely unaware of overall grip.
But give him/her a little extra grip and he will use it
and go faster, while reporting the car unchanged.
nAlthough a very intuitive concept for drivers, it remains largely ignored by mainstream suspension tuners and race engineers. This may be because of the difficulty of constructing a reasonable, easy to understand model. By taking a new perspective on understeer and oversteer, as per the diagrams in this intro, we offer a model that can predict and explain the motion of the car. It could change the way you think about suspension set up. Please click below:
Introduction to "How Does the Driver Control the Car?" (File will open in
Microsoft Powerpoint.) |