Monday, April 13, 2009

Dangerous Banned Racing Tech: Counter Balance System

Last week Pete was trying to figure out a way to do an active suspension system. While such a system is great and is all the rage with the high end sports car companies, to develop one takes lots of money and lots of really smart people, and we don't have either.

So I started to think of a different way to get the same affect without an active suspension. I started thinking of the center of mass. On MythBusters they were trying to see if having people stand on one side of a bus if it would keep it from rolling. Of course the problem with loading on side with weight is that it would help when turning one way but hurt if you turn the other way. So you would need a way to shift the weight according to which direction you were turning so the weight would stay on the inside of the turn to try and combat the body roll caused by turning. So this is what I came up with



There is a pulley system connecting the weight to the steering wheel. As the wheel turns the weight will be pulled one direction or the other pulling the weight on the inside changing the center of gravity of the vehicle adding the weight were you most need it for each turn.

3 comments:

  1. That is an interesting idea, but depending on how much weight there is, it could effect the steering of the car, or make it harder to steer. But I like the idea.

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  2. Or if we can find one of these cars for $500 we will have active or semi active suspension

    1987 Mitsubishi Galant "Dynamic ECS", world’s first production semi-active electronically controlled suspension system

    1989 Citroën XM (Hydractive, semi-active)

    1990 Toyota Supra (Toyota Electronically Managed Suspension, TEMS)

    1991 Infiniti Q45 "Full-Active Suspension (FAS)", world's first production fully active suspension system

    1991 Mitsubishi GTO "Electronic Controlled Suspension"

    1991 Toyota Soarer 'Active'

    1992 Toyota Celica (Japan only)

    1992 Citroën Xantia VSX (Hydractive 2, semi-active)

    1993 Cadillac, several models with road sensing suspension.

    1994 Citroën Xantia Activa (Hydractive 2 and active roll control)

    1996 Jaguar XK8 'CATS' (optional)

    1997 Jaguar XJ 'CATS' (standard on XJR model)

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  3. The weight system will depend on the weight of the car. You would need a light car so that you wouldn't need that significant amount of weight to make a difference. in a < 2000lb Car 100lb would be 5% of the total weight. TO help move the weight it would probably need to be on wheels and have it all set on some kind of track so the force of acceleration or braking wouldn't try to upset the system.

    Out of the list that has active suspension only a few seem to be in america and of an age that might work. the 1987 Galant might be the most like to be in the price range.

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