Jumpstart a car

[Brian Ellis]

The prob with motors in the wheels is the unsprung weight. It would make the ride very rough as each motor would be the best part of 100 kg. It would also play havoc with the tyres. A few cars even have the rear brakes inboard to reduce the unsprung weight for a better ride.

[az]

It would of course have had active adaptive suspension. Unfortunately, I recently learned that Bose have some patents on this, so there goes my plan to patent it and become filthy stinking rich.

Here's a cool video demonstrating it. But I really had the idea before them! :angry:

[Brian Ellis]

Citroen has been doing this since about 1955 with their DS19 model, granted not electric but a combination of pneumatic and hydraulic. There were 2 problems with the DS: 1. it rusted like hell and 2. the car wasn't powerful enough to pull the skin off a rice pudding as a lot of the engine power was "stolen" by the hydraulics. However, it was probably the most innovative car since the 39-45 war, from any country. Its suspension was such as to amortise road shocks, keeping the car level, even in tight corners. If you had a hydraulic failure, it was the tow-away truck, though, because the car just sank onto its hunkers.

[az]

Yes, the Deesse was a great, innovative and beautiful car, but it didn't have a suspension like the one demonstrated in my link. Its very innovative suspension "only" served as a ride-height control system.