Re: driving onto moving object

[Virtual Bob <h93young@creighton.edu>]

On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Jon Moritz wrote:

>There was a commercial for a nissan something that drove down a runway
>supposedly at high speed and drove into a moving cargo plane.
>...
>2) What would be the difference in performing this stunt with a rear wheel
>drive vs a front wheel drive or quattro?
>
>you have to get the speed of the drive wheels down to near zero in a split
>second or risk driving through the object you want to drive into.  Using a
>manual vs an auto trans might have and effect on how you try this.

I saw the TV commercial, too. The problem I see doing it with any 4WD/AWD
in this stunt is that there's good time lapse when there's great RPM
difference between the front and rear wheels (fronts on the cargo floor,
the rears still on the runway). This will probably hell for open center
differentials, let along limited slip ones used in the q.

As for RWD vs. FWD, the procedures will be slightly different I imagine.
For FWD, you need to make sure you have appreciatable speed advantage vs.
that cargo plane when the front wheels hits cargo plane's floor. When that
happens, I imagine you put the auto into neutral or push the clutch and
let the car's momentum carry the car AND have the rear wheels "bump" up to
the cargo floor. For RWD, it's slightly easier as you have control of
acceleration till the rear wheels meet the cargo floor. You may blip the
accelerator a little when the front wheels get up to the floor.

If I'm driving 4WD vehicle for such stunt and don't want to break the car,
then I'd try to drive fast enough (faster than necessary for 2WD) to
minimize the time when front wheels and rear wheels spend in different
speed.

------------- clip here with virtual scissors --------------
************************************************************
Keyboard stuck error. Press F1 to continue.
Any unsolicited e-mails will be charged $500 per e-mail,
  plus court cost.
Your contribution to Bill Gates' personal wealth: US$232.32
************************************************************