Alright guys, tech question here.

If the rotating mass in the engine is mounted as it is in our civics then when you turn a corner you'll create a torque becuase you are changing the direction of the angular momentum of the engine. After pissing around with vector cross products i've concluded that for a left term the angular momentum vector raises up on the right hand side for an engine rotating anticlockwise looking from number 1 cylinder. Do you guys think this could play a part in the handling of a car round a corner or do you think the main cause of body roll is due to the centripteal force provided by the tires createing a torque across the body of the car?

 

yes?

 

you're hurting my brain..

 

It all makes sense I thinks that why the S2000 and NSX are vertically opposed rather then Horizontal maybe I dunno!

 

figured it out now, theres a good explantion here for anyones who interested...

http://www.gyroscopes.org/behaviour.asp

interesting thing is that if you have a longtitudinally mounted engine the car will rock from front to back depending on the turn and engine rotation compared to left to right for the engine in our civics..seems like we have it better...? maybe i have no idea, on an nsx the wheels are rotating perpendicular to the engines rotation so you'll have two effects when turning at high speed / rpm rather than just a sideways rocking motion...


arghh.. .maybe when i get my degree ill have a better idea of whats going on lol..anyhow i think the effects must be smallish or manufacturers wouldnt mount the engines longtitudinally in sports cars - but then again do they do that becuase they're rear wheel drive and its easier?

 

7?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CivicSiRracer69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It all makes sense I thinks that why the S2000 and NSX are vertically opposed rather then Horizontal maybe I dunno!</TD></TR></TABLE>

absolutely, not just honda, any "sport" car or any car that "suppose" to handle well also!

 

I would think the engine doesnt make enough rotational force to even make a difference when turning. A gyroscope that you showed is turning at a concertable speed so our engine with the size would have to turn over 25K RPM to even come close. Now your idea is understood but reasoning is not,now torque is the creation of twisting force so using our civics that rotate in a counter clockwise motion v.s. that of a conventional clockwise engine. So again I understand your concept.
Now to create the same force your talking about you will have to mount the engince litteraly standing up, hence the Porsche and subaru flat 4 has a better rotational direction then our directed upward pistons.

but your forgetting one key factor.. the transmission. the force is all attached to the device so your forgetting the torque then is equally transmitted to the wheels at a straight road, and during turns the torque is idealy distributed according to the need of each independent wheel. So no matter what the engine can produce one it reaches the transmission then things change.. but if you were to to a direct drive from engine to wheels you still will need alot of force to create a increase of torque thru a turn .. torque is always opposed in a vehicle via the weight of the car. So dont forget when the engine is freewheelin v.s. under load then the graphs change.

 

OH an also your final quesiton.. the main reason body roll is created is because of gravity forces both G forces and gravity. one opposing the other.

 

Modified by CardDealer at 3:53 PM 11/17/2006