Why are panhard rods always on that side?

I had to read this again.

A lot of info crammed in that post...

So you can vary the rate of the swaybar while driving?
Does that mean you could give the car more oversteer al lower speeds, and more understeer at higher speeds?

One thing I do not understand is where you said you can keep equal weight on both front wheels...
Do you mean in a corner?
What about weight transfer?
Or do you take all of that up with the rear wheels? ( does that only work untill you lift a wheel, or can you keep going after that?)

 

I had to drive the caar again, and again, and again....

The rate is fixed, however the pressure it applies to each wheel, in either direction up or down can be varied.

Yes. However in the road car application the idea is to give the car totally flat and neutral cornering.

Yes, equal weight corner to corner front to rear has to be engineered in by way of engine and component location within the chassis/body structure. However, since the active sway bar can be made to control the body movement of the car in either direction vertically, it can be used to jack the body or allow it to squat. For example, as the car is pitched into a corner the weight transfers to the outside front wheel. So, the bar pushes down on the outer front lower control arm and pulls the innner one up, keeping the car relatively flat across the front axle. The pitch senso cann now detect that, there is still a lot of weight transfer to the front of the car, so wilst the rear sway bar is taking the signals from the front to align the rear suspensing and keep it flat, the pitch ssignal operates the system to make the car 'sqaut' or lower itself at the rear thus maintaining weight bias and balance.

See above.

Of course we can't beat the laws of physics, so we cheat, using additional equipmment such as electronic brake force distribution to balance brake pressure to each wheel dependent on the load and rotational speed. So as weight moves from reaar to front, the brake bias is automatically adjusted to maintain equal braking pressure at each wheel. It also adjusts the bias fro side to side or diagnally as the situationn requires to keep the car stable.

Iff the car has VDIM, and the speed is such that there is still some slip at either the front wheels or rear, this oversteer or understeer situation is controlled by automatically adjusting the steering angle and if required backing out some engine torque.

The first few times you use this technology it's quite spooky, because a car that caan control it's own braking throttle and steering is quite foreign to the way we'vve become acustmed to driving.

However, imagine this situation. The Aussies will understand what Turn one at Saandown park looks like. It's a 90 degree laft hander, with no camber at all at the end of a milie long straight as you turn in the road drops away to a short downhill straight. It's also quite wide and can be taken at high speeds although it's fun to watch even the most experienceed racers spear off into the sandpit, because if you missth the apeex by a poofteenth, you are screwed because it's the most unforgiving corner on the track.

Now imagine a road car, in this case a bog standard lexus GS450H (That H stands for Hybrid, whhich is a whole other part of the ball game, but this car accelleratees significantly quicker and handles significantly better than a regular GS430) travelling at around 200km/h into the braking area.

The brakes are sensationaal and washing off speed to bring it back to aroundd 160km/h to turn into the corner is a no brainer. However, now, there a river of water about a foot wide and inch deep running across the apex of the corner.

What would a normal caar do in this situation? Aquaplane on the water,, lose control and slide or spin off the track on whatever route it choses with the driver simply along for the ride. regardless how skilled that driver may be.

This car, does not do that, it takes over steering and brake control to keep the car following the line it was on and on the track, without even going so wide as to hit the ripple strips or kerbing. First time, take balls to push it so hard nto the corner knnowing the water is there, so what we had to do was drive the track dry and without us being told, the water was added. First time I did it as soon as i saw the water I almost shit myself, coz I figured I'm ghoing so ffast evven the sand pit wont stop me. As the car hit the water, the beeper sounded to tell me I was no longer in control, I felt the resistance in the steering wheel as the car started to steer and brake itself it rock and rolled a couple of times as it might through a high speed slalom and before I knew it I was driving agaain and in the middle of the bitumen road surface.

Nope, it happens whenever the sars systems detect a situationn where it is required.

There's some other pretty cool technology inn the same cars, that we might think is silly, like the active headlamps linked to steering and roadspeeed so they cn illuminate the point on the road where the car will be in three seconds time rather than where it is now.

Or the active cruise control system that you seet to a speed and distance to the car in front. Then as you drive and the traffic in front slowws, so do you automatically maintaaining the preset gap. Whenn the car in front moves out of the way, your car goes back to it's preseet speed. In the event the caar in front slows suddenly, before you can react or maybe beforee you even realize it's happened, you car applies the brakes and sounds the warning buzzer to tell you to concentratee and take control of the car.

How about a pre crashh system? Thiss system is constantly monitoring the roadd in front of the caar looking for obstacles. When it detects that a collision is imminent, based on road speed, size and direction or not of thravell of the obstacle, this system automatically prepares thee car for impaact by pretensioning the seatbelts, preparing the airbags to deploy, activation the ABSpump and brake systems. It wont stop you having the accident but our ressearch has proven it can reducee the degree of injury by up to 70%, which can be the difference between life or death.

There's lots more stuff than thiis but I'm probably already about to cop a pasting for being too far off topic.

However, if there's anybody considering a Peetrol Electric Hybrid system in a hot rod, the package that simply bolts in where the 350/350 combination was removed, is right around the corner. AND, the caar it's fitted too, is as i said earlier significantly qquicker ) to 60mph and over the quarter mle. Top speeed, being electonically controlled is the same as the V8 model and it handles as described above.

Welcome to the 21st century.