Tony Posted February 4, 2007 Report Share Posted February 4, 2007 The main attraction in the F 400 Carving is a new system that varies the camber angle on the outer wheels between 0 and 20 degrees, depending on the road situation. Used in conjunction with newly-developed tyres, it provides 30 percent more lateral stability than a conventional system with a fixed camber setting and standard tyres. This considerably enhances active safety, since better lateral stability equals improved road adhesion and greater cornering stability. The active camber control in the F 400 Carving paves the way for an equally new asymmetrical-tread tyre concept. When the two-seater car is cornering, the outer wheels tilt inwards, leaving only the inner area of these tyres in contact with the road. This area of the tread is slightly rounded off. Meanwhile both the tread pattern and the rubber blend have been specially selected to ensure highly dynamic and extremely safe cornering. When driving straight ahead, however, it is the outer areas of the tyres that are in contact with the road. These areas have a tried-and-tested car tread pattern, offering excellent high-speed and low-noise performance. Two different concepts therefore come to fruition in a single tyre, thanks to active camber control. Your thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 4, 2007 Report Share Posted February 4, 2007 Your thoughts. Immediate thoughts? Why are the drivers wearing condoms? I can't really see this being used on every day cars, sounds like a lot of expense for a problem that doesn't exist plus packaging headaches! Would be interesting to see the next Fxxx use something along those lines but I'd predict that if this ever sees the light of day, it will be on specialist open wheeled track cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2007 Your thoughts. Immediate thoughts? Why are the drivers wearing condoms? I can't really see this being used on every day cars, sounds like a lot of expense for a problem that doesn't exist plus packaging headaches! Would be interesting to see the next Fxxx use something along those lines but I'd predict that if this ever sees the light of day, it will be on specialist open wheeled track cars. I hope you are correct.... Although i can see Mercedes introducing a lesser version for production cars to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam@TDi Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Personally I see this as cheeting, most of the performance gain in this system is actually made by essentially shifting to a race tyre for cornering and a hard tyre for the straights, not from the actual adjustment of the geometry. Strikes me as Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Perfectly summed up...... Quality image Sam@tdi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark H. Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 If it only uses half a tyre at a time, then wont the gain in grip from the compound etc, be negated by only half the tyre gripping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam@TDi Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 I can see why it might seem that way, but the gain from the rubber compound change far out weighs the loss from the reduced surface area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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