Why do cars accelerate in turns when throttle is NOT depressed?

[VT]

is this all from the acme looneyversity department of physics or something?

I believe that mathematically using vectors and stuff they will accelerate in some manner, negatively or positively. sure some brain box knows but i know for a fact my real life car does not increase in speed at the wheels in a corner, that's just lunacy-first thing i remember from driving lessons many years ago was my instructor telling me to press the accelerator a bit more to maintain speed.

My cars got a speedo and it goes DOWN when turning!

An increase in speed is dealing with the VELOCITY (rate at which an object changes it's position) of an object, not the ACCELERATION (rate at which an object changes it's velocity) of the object. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, when either the velocity or the direction of the object changes acceleration changes. I'm the wrong person to agrue with over mathematical principles, don't start - you won't win.

 

[F310B]

I think the use of the word 'accelerate' is obscuring the point of this thread! 'Acceleration' is just a word. When most people think of acceleration they think of speeding up or slowing down, whatever the direction.

If 'accelerate' is not solely based on speed changes but also direction, we might as well make up a new word, to satisfy the whinging physicists, hehe. Let's call it 'Zacceleration' - the rate of change of speed. That's clearly what the thread-maker was originally talking about.

If you are not pressing the throttle and the car is zaccelerating, then clearly something is awry! You are not making the engine spin the wheels faster, and yet they are since you are going faster. It would have to be some other input, such as a driver aid.

 

[Sturdy]

VTGT07: "An increase in speed is the VELOCITY"

Speed = Distance / Time,
and velocity =displacement / time

Given that displacement is effectively distance with direction, i'd have to volunteer that perhaps your statement is not quite perfectly true.

Im quite sure you know this anyway, im just being picky as you made such a scrutiny inviting statement. No nastiness intended, just friendly banter ok?

 

[Sturdy]

F310B, may i be the first to formally define a formula for zacceleration.

Zacceleration = Change in speed / Time

And yes, we are being extremely petty in this thread, but i hope its all just good natured

 

[VT]

VTGT07: "An increase in speed is the VELOCITY"

Speed = Distance / Time,
and velocity =displacement / time

Given that displacement is effectively distance with direction, i'd have to volunteer that perhaps your statement is not quite perfectly true.

Im quite sure you know this anyway, im just being picky as you made such a scrutiny inviting statement. No nastiness intended, just friendly banter ok?

Crap .. there I go again thinking faster than I type. I left out the words 'dealing with' in that line - lemme go fix that.

F310B, may i be the first to formally define a formula for zacceleration.

Zacceleration = Change in speed / Time

Funny, as thats the EXACT formula for acceleration. Pure geniuses I say, pure geniuses.

 

[RoadBeef]

I kindly suggest that a Moderator please lock this thread.

The question originally posed has been answered.

Say No to Spam, kids.

 

[Sturdy]

but didnt you say VTGT that ACCELERATION (rate at which an object changes it's velocity)
I.e Acceleration is change in velocity / time

so Zacceleration is change in speed / time regardless of direction, merely what is read on the speedo. yes this is all very pointless, i vote we lock it too

 

[XCNuse]

I must say that only noobs use driving aids

...thats nonsense...

how is it possible.. for someone to drive a 900+ HP car without destroying the wheels in a lap, and handling it well....

using a dualshock controller
.... i would say its nearly impossible to control anything with a controller without help when trying to push the limits

 

[f1king]

I'm not convinced that one should always be either accelerating or braking to use more grip. If you watch the F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen, his style is distinct as he often spends a large amount of time in the middle of the corner not accelerating *or* braking, but just steering the car.

Hey I dont mean to beat a dead horse but I dont think youve ever raced anything except in video games, no driver that wants to win or knows what he is doing is ever off a peddle Gas/Brake becasue every second your off the gas others are catching you.
Kimi does not cost throught turns just for your info. he feathers the throttle. Basicaly he is steering the car through the turn with the throttle. Its nothing like a video game where your just on the throttle 100% or brake 100% need to judge it, just like a street car, when the light turns green you dont floor it, and when you come to a red light you dont slam on the brakes. Ahhhhh! anyhow

 

[ledhed]

If the people who play this game tried to drive a car in real life the same way they play the game 98 % of them would be dead or crippled . (Darwin Rules ! ) but since it is a game ( although a nice simulation ) I guess you should allow for things like acceleration even without input from your foot on a pedal ( or finger on a button ) .
According to the game the " drivers aids " work by controlling the BRAKES to effect under / oversteer . maybe a new rule of physics should come into play..the PS2 rules of acceleration or something.

 

[XCNuse]

and F1king is exactly correct.

if you let off the gas in basically any high horsepowered car, not only will the differential unlock (if there is one) you WILL slow down a LOT and you WILL loose LOTS of time.

if anyone remembers the race at quebec last year when the BAR (cant remember who it was) spun his car because he let the GAS off, and the dif unlocked and putting all that force back onto the drivetrain just spun him out so... ya

 

[F310B]

Hey I dont mean to beat a dead horse but I dont think youve ever raced anything except in video games, no driver that wants to win or knows what he is doing is ever off a peddle Gas/Brake becasue every second your off the gas others are catching you.
Kimi does not cost throught turns just for your info. he feathers the throttle. Basicaly he is steering the car through the turn with the throttle. Its nothing like a video game where your just on the throttle 100% or brake 100% need to judge it, just like a street car, when the light turns green you dont floor it, and when you come to a red light you dont slam on the brakes. Ahhhhh! anyhow

You are right I have never raced anything except maybe a dozen go-kart races. Anyway, I didn't say Kimi coasted through turns, I said sometimes he has relatively large amounts of time when he does not appear, to me, using the accelerator or brakes. I say this because I saw a throttle/brake readout while watching an onboard camera of Kimi driving. He came off the brakes and then did not immediately start feathering the throttle.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe Kimi had some kind of car problem that was causing him to drive that way. Maybe he was using a constant and extremely small throttle input that did not vary. But that's the way things appeared to me.

 

[f1king]

You are right I have never raced anything except maybe a dozen go-kart races. Anyway, I didn't say Kimi coasted through turns, I said sometimes he has relatively large amounts of time when he does not appear, to me, using the accelerator or brakes. I say this because I saw a throttle/brake readout while watching an onboard camera of Kimi driving. He came off the brakes and then did not immediately start feathering the throttle.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe Kimi had some kind of car problem that was causing him to drive that way. Maybe he was using a constant and extremely small throttle input that did not vary. But that's the way things appeared to me.

If youve raced Go Karts you should know never to coast, believe it or not Go Karts are as close as to F1's any race car gets (well racing Go karsts anyway)
I guess I was wrong about you not having driven anything besides video games I still love Go karting, but dont get to go as much.

 

[F310B]

Go karting is always fun, but I would never want to devote my life to car racing simply because of the danger aspect. A young man (in his 20s) went head on into the barriers and was killed at a track where I went karting once. What was scary was that it was a really top notch (indoor) track, nothing suspect about it.

I was never anything special as a karter (not in dry conditions anyway), but I am probably better at karting than at Gran Turismo. I am pretty good at GT3 now but only because of practice, I don't have a flair for it. I once saw someone who clearly had a flair for karting, that was pretty impressive. I was taking this long corner flat out, and he was lifting off, and yet he was quicker than me. Maybe he was carrying more speed down the straight beforehand but I don't think so, I think it was something else. That was amazing.

I don't think I coast in karting, I just do the regular thing, brake, get off the brakes and onto the throttle, and gradually increase it until I can floor it out of the corner. It's hard to tap-tap the throttle in most go-karts because the throttle has a fair amount of travel. I just try and be reasonably smooth.

 

[mackie]

The correct basic technique when entering corner is to brake in a straight line (hard at first and easing off as you slow), turn in on a balanced throttle, clip the apex and then progressively feed in the power as you wind off the steering lock on the exit.
Ofcourse that's the very basic technique, but the correct one none-the-less.

 

[My_Sterious]

wtf???.....so its his fault if the cars engine blows up because of a mechanical problem??....and he certanly DID NOT come last in those events where he made to the end.....

you're just full of ****.....

Okay, you got my point wrong.
What I meant was that Kimi uses the gas too little and too much. He drops the gas all off so the engines rpm jumps like hell. The engine can't take that and it eventually blows to pieces. Or can you say he had just bad luck last year. I can't remember Coulthard's engine blowing up more than once and Kimi's blew like 8 times. You possibly can't say that's all just bad luck, can you?
But let's hope this year the engine woulnd't blow up in every race so we'd see some racing between Kimi and Michael.

 

[F310B]

Interesting stuff, SkylineGoes.

So you think Kimi is hard on the engine because he lifts off for a period of time and has very low revs, and then gets hard on the throttle and sends the revs soaring?

Maybe that's why he has had many engine failures? He is a fast driver (just look at the laptimes) but his technique does seem a bit strange.

 

[My_Sterious]

Interesting stuff, SkylineGoes.

So you think Kimi is hard on the engine because he lifts off for a period of time and has very low revs, and then gets hard on the throttle and sends the revs soaring?

Maybe that's why he has had many engine failures? He is a fast driver (just look at the laptimes) but his technique does seem a bit strange.

Finally someone understands. That's excactly what I was trying to say.