Gömböcs - The unflippable car

[Ciro Pabón]

You probably have read about Gömböcs.

Do you think they can be used somehow to develop an unflippable car? Perhaps a more stable tyre? A Gömböc is an object shaped in such a way that only has one stable (and one unstable) position.

Like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAg5_vHFmI[/youtube]

Apparently turtles have shells shaped like a Gömböc, to right themselves without using their limbs.

I also wonder if this principle can be used in aerodynamics (you know, center of pressure interacting with center of forces).

[Belatti]

ehhh...

A citroen 2CV???

Tom where are you?

[jddh1]

Very interesting...
If we make a car this way, then perhaps Piquet will have a drive in F1 after all, and a safe one at that.
Gomboc-shaped car == Piquet-proof car.

on another note, if you run a "Gombocs" (not Gomboc) on google, this thread is 5th on the list, or so. pretty cool.

OK, I'm going to go and read more about this. Fascinating.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, Tomba claims we're at the 30.000 visitors a day mark. Thank heaven we don't have 30.000 posts per day...

[dumrick]

ehhh...

A citroen 2CV???

Yeah, a 2CV teaches us that if you have a soft suspension, with lots of camber gain in roll on the front axle and 125mm wide tyres, you don't need Gömböcs

Tom where are you?

Actually, I guess you'll find that technical forums usually don't run out of Citroën geeks (like myself)
Oh, and happy 90th birthday for the most important car maker of the 20th century =D>

[Caito]

There was advertising done in Argentina that nobody coudl flip the citroen, and the one who did would win one. Many people tried to flip it with negative results. A local known driver (Di Palma) made a j turn in rerverse( go in reverse, full throttle, and flip the wheel) and managed to flip the car.

[Ray]

'Do you feel like you've wasted your life?'

Sweet hat too.