Tilting car

A tilting car is a type of automobile that has the ability to change the angle between the road and the bottom of the passenger cabin in a way that allows it to avoid rolling over while the vehicle is driving through a curve.^[3] Tilting is critically important for narrow-track vehicles because unlike wider vehicles, the acceleration required to make a non-tilting narrow vehicle skid during a curve is less than that required to make it roll over; tilting allows narrow-track vehicles to "lean into the curve".^[3] Tilting cars may have three or four wheels.^[3]

The Nissan Land Glider, a concept car that could tilt up to 17 degrees on a turn^[1]

The Toyota i-Road, which used an automatic tilting system called "Active Lean"^[2]

Prototypes and examples

Several prototypes tilting cars have been built since 1950.^[3] Some include:

• Ford Gyron (1961^[4])^[3]
• Lean Machine (General Motors, 1970s)^[3]
• F-300 Life-jet (Mercedes-Benz, 1997)^[3]
• Carver One (Carver, 2002),^[3]
• CLEVER (2003)^[3]
• Lumeneo Smera (2008^[5])^[3]
• Nissan Land Glider (2009)^[6]
• Tilter [fr] Tilter (2011)^{[dubious – discuss][citation needed]}
• Toyota i-Road (Toyota, 2013)^[3]

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class (C217) was a production car that could tilt up to 2.5 degrees, detecting curves with a camera and acceleration sensor.^[7] Its production model was first unveiled in 2014.^[7]

See also

• Tilting three-wheeler
• Tilting train
• Narrow-track vehicle

References

1. "Nissan Land Glider Concept Press Kit: Overview". Nissan Motor Corporation. 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2024-11-30.
2. Lavrinc, Damon (5 March 2013). "Toyota's Tiny EV Has 3 Wheels — But Feel Free to Lean Into Corners". WIRED. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013.
3. Tang, Chen; Khajepour, Amir (2019). Narrow Tilting Vehicles: Mechanism, Dynamics, and Control. Synthesis Lectures on Advances in Automotive Technology. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-01501-4. ISBN 978-3-031-00373-8.
4. Sherman, Don (7 January 2007). "When Dream Cars Collide With Real-World Demands". New York Times.
5. "Voiture électrique – Lumeneo quitte l'aventure". Association pour l’Avenir du Véhicule Electro-Mobile (in French). 16 November 2013. Retrieved 2024-11-30.
6. "Nissan Land Glider Concept". Car and Driver. 2009-10-09. Retrieved 2024-11-30.
7. "2015 Mercedes S-class Coupe: The flagship has landed". Autoweek. 2014-02-10. Retrieved 2024-11-30.