Could you please recommend reading on gyroscopic effect on car stabilization on uneven surfaces, like icy bumps, snow partially compressed by other vehicles, etc.? I’ve seen that the gyroscopic effect is mostly analyzed in connection with motorbikes, not cars. I’ve only found an article at http://www.gyroscopes.org/behaviour.asp but it is too simplistic. The “Race Car Vehicle Dynamics” which some people call “the complete” book doesn’t even mention gyroscopic effect. I’ve found out that if I drive with the constant speed and constant throttle application on the third gear with the revs almost reaching the upper limit, the car is more stable than when I keep the same speed on fifth gear, when the revs are almost twice lower.

 

Good luck with that...
I think with bikes, there's a couple things which make it more important. The flywheel & crank mass is a larger percentage of total vehicle mass. And the engines typically have much higher rpm. Not only that, but a bike only has 2 wheels (duh) so a rolling torque is much easier to notice.

 

As said before, the torque caused by this inertial "imbalance" is not large, particularly because the rotating parts don't have large masses compared to the mass of the vehicle. Forces caused by bumps will produce lateral forces, but my guess is that these are way smaller than the lateral load transfers production based cars would see under even small accelerations. Also, the mounting points of the rotating drivetrain for a FF car are close together, and thus do not have a large moment arm with which the gyro forces act upon.

Third gear at 8000rpm sends a substantially different amount of torque to the wheels compared to 5th gear at 4000rpm. I think that is the reason for the "instability" in different gears, not gyroscopic precession.

Edit: cuz I was thinking 90 degrees off


Modified by GSpeedR at 2:24 PM 3/8/2005

 

I read on monster trucks they make sure to spin the wheels fast when they jump their trucks since the huge tires gives a gyrosopic stabilizing effect as they fly. I don't think the flywheel or the whole rotating mass in the engine has much gyrosopic stabilizing effect on the vehicle's sprung weight.

Charleston