CAR HANDLING RESEARCH

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 13

CAR HANDLING RESEARCH

rpYPISTS and clerks driving at 60 miles an hour between lines of rubber cones are helping General Motors engineers to develop betterhandling cars. At the Michigan proving grounds of G.M.,

25 average drivers are daily trying to follow irregular courses between cones placed just a few inches further apart

than the width of the car so information can be gathered on the best handling characteristics for family cars. Although the proving ground employs many skilled test drivers, they are not used in the project because their driving skill might compensate for some of the handling eccentricities deliberately in-

troduced into the test vehicles. Engineers chart the number and position of cones that the amateur testers knock over, and from this learn how different aspects of car road behaviour are likely to affect driving. Suspension, steering, tyres and weight distribution all contribute to the manner in which a car handles. General Motors engineers and researchers of the Cornell University aeronautical laboratory have isolated 27 different design variables which, together, produce handling characteristics. The test cars used in the project have adjustable handling components, so different factors can be introduced as required.

When the vehicles’ components have been adjusted to provide a preselected range of conditions, the volunteer test drivers take them through the course so their reactions to the alterations can be charted. Each volunteer makes several round trips of the 1000 ft track.