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Gyroscopic effect

To: "land-speed" <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Subject: Gyroscopic effect
From: "John Burk" <joyseydevil@comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:47:12 -0400
I've always wondered what gyroscopic effect the wheels and flywheel have on a
race car . To see what happened I just did a test with a gyroscope (my die
grinder hanging from a string , spinning on a horizontal axis) . I pushed it
counter-clockwise with my thumb in yaw . It naturaly rolled to the right  I
turned it clockwise and it rolled to the left . This would say that the
gyroscopic effect of the wheels of a yawing race car have a negative effect .
Also if the power was still on the greater traction of the outer drive wheel
would cause oversteer .The heavier wheels and higher wheel speeds with LSR
would make the effect worse . It would be interesting to know the actual
forces . What do the engineers on the list think .
John Burk




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