THE SAFEST CARS IN THE WORLD: PRESENT AND FUTURE
by John Lee
Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. --Proverbs 19:20 [Recovery Devotional Bible]
If a driver really wants the safest suspension design available today, he will look for a vehicle that uses "double-wishbone" type, four-wheel independent suspension. This design originated in Europe and has been used by thoroughbred racing cars for nearly forty years, but has only just been used in affordable passenger cars since about 1990. Some expensive European cars have it, but call it a "multilink" design. It accomplishes the same thing, which is "tire camber control" when the vehicle body rolls sideways due to cornering (keeping the tire flat on the road surface during cornering). This gets the maximum cornering power out of the tires (especially the outside tires that do all the work), but more importantly gives maximum predictability when confronted with an emergency situation. "Camber thrust" (described in the next chapter) is a type of tire grip that is only utilized in vehicles with four-wheel double-wishbone suspension. There are plenty of engineering and mechanical books available from automotive magazines that give detailed explanations of this phenomenon. Inexpensive computer analysis programs, available from racing supply outlets, can answer any question an automotive engineer might ask.
(diagram camber thrust tire vs. strut tire vs. solid axle) # 2-4
Cheap strut-type suspensions can have a tendency to suddenly lose cornering force when a driver gets into trouble, due to the tire not staying flat on the road, making the trouble even worse. One Japanese car company uses double-wishbone-type suspensions on all their vehicles, even sport utilities and minivans. Although allegedly costlier to manufacture, they have made it available on some of the best selling and most affordable cars sold. These car companies also invest heavily in motor sports technology and innovation, using it as a training ground for their senior engineers, and much of it trickles down for the benefit of their customers, similar to what American companies did eighty years ago.
A useful side benefit of double wishbone suspension is the easy drivability of these cars in rain and snow, which could also be perceived as a safety benefit. None of the American manufacturers yet build affordable family cars with this complex design, although some use it in Japanese-built cars with American badging. I believe this design can prevent crashes and thus save many lives, simply by putting more control in the hands of drivers, and preventing unexpected loss of control.
Another very important safety benefit of double-wishbone suspension design is that it is the least likely type to roll over during a collision, or in the case of sport utilities--like the military's Hum-Vee, less likely to roll over merely driving around a corner. This is due to the complicated nature of the suspension geometry, and how the "jacking effect" works to try and tip over the vehicle. In Ralph Nader's book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," one of his topics for discussion was the extreme jacking effect of the Corvair, which used the same cheap and primative rear suspension design as the VW beetle and various European sportscars. Rollover could occur as slow as ????, such as during a sudden lane change. That was the worst design the engineers had ever come up with, the purpose of which was to save money on construction (this design flaw was later corrected). The next worst type is vehicles with solid axles. Recently "Consumer Reports" magazine showed a particular sport utility vehicle could roll over at a mere ????mph. Strut types are also inferior to double-wishbone types in regards to roll overs. Although the height of the vehicle's "center of gravity" relative to the "track width" of the vehicle plays a major roll in whether a vehicle turns over when rounding a corner, well-designed suspension geometry can actually do much to counteract this tendency. Purchasing a vehicle with both front and rear anti-roll (anti-sway) bars will greatly improve the stability and prevent jacking effect.
(diagram three suspensions with roll centers, etc.) # 6-8
Much race car technology will continue to trickle down to the automobile industry. Explosion-proof fuel tanks, fire extinguisher systems, survival cages, are all much less expensive than airbags and anti-lock brakes, and there is no reason to not expect them to eventually appear on all vehicles. Advanced driving techniques will continue to filter down to the public, eventually becoming common knowledge. Racing cars that routinely are driven in the rain are required to have a "rain light" mounted at the rear of the vehicle. This is only switched on during conditions of poor visibility. In Europe, every vehicle on the highway is required by the government to have a similar extra-bright tail light, and are required to be switched on by every motorist during conditions of rain or fog. These special lights are much brighter than normal tail lights or brake lights, and allow drivers to see the vehicles in front of them before they get too close, thus preventing many rearend collisons. This low-tech safety feature probably costs less than $1.00 to manufacture, yet no American-sold vehicle includes it, not even as an option.
The bottom line is that a driver does not have to be "drunk" to have an accident, especially when his vehicle is not capable of responding when he operates the controls. Thousands of sober people have accidental crashes every day. And when the government refuses to allow drivers the information they require in order to avoid crashing, especially on defective government-built roads, who is really to blame for the death and destruction? Criminally negligent homicide is a crime punishable by incarceration. Why don't these dangerous government officials face immediate arrest and prosecution? How many hundreds of thousands of people have these government bureaucrats killed?
|
