The dangers of good intentions

[unixronin]

C|Net has a pictorial on concept cars commissioned by Peugeot.  The text for this one says "[...] including the drum [rear] wheel that was designed for stability."

Except that it seems to me that drum rear wheel will not only reduce stability on all but perfectly smooth and level surfaces, it'll make the rear end of this car horribly prone to hydroplaning.  Building (and buying) tires for it is going to be a bitch, too.

There are concepts in this pictorial that I find somewhat intriguing, such as #6, the variable-geometry Peugeot 888.  This is not one of them.  And concept #9, the Opena, is just silly.  What was he thinking?

Comments

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

How would a drum rear wheel turn? The outer edge of the wheel won't be able to spin at a different speed than the inner edge. Either torque will build up along the entire rear axle and parts of the wheel will have to slip/skid to relieve that torque, or weight distribution under cornering will have to completely unload the inner rear wheel—without either, the car will understeer horribly.

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

How would a drum rear wheel turn?

*ahem*

By "turn" above, I mean "corner" and not "spin", of course.

(My, what an imprecise ambiguous language we have here.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's another part of the problem, isn't it? I think I'm filing this one under "critically unclear on the concept".

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

Badly. It would suck on turns and tear up the 'tire'. unless the 'tire' is very soft it won't all grip the road. If it's soft it wears erratically and if it's hard it wears erratically. Alignment would be interesting.

It looks like it's driven as a linear motor which while cool is evilly complex though not as bad as having another motor drive a wheel that drives it which is also possible. The picture leaves me to suspect the wheels would be dirt catchers. I want to see how that rear one does when some sticky tar or road kill gets on it. ;)

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

I also like #6.

For the one you showed, #10, I thought "if they split the 1 wide rear wheel into 2 conventional wheels, maybe it'd work", but that's almost what the #6 is. That is, assuming #10's shoulders and hips flex into a similar configuration as the "in the city" configuration of the #6. If not, then the #10 has no value at all to me ;-) (even if you fix the rear wheel).

There were a couple others that seemed sort of interesting (#11 might be nice ... if it had doors). But I really like #6.

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

I really liked #6 (http://news.cnet.com/2300-11389_3-6246178-6.html). I see the potential for a hellacious good Simpsons episode in that one.

#10 would certainly be stable. After the first time you drove it around a corner, you'd never take it out of the garage again.