Why can't we design a car that has a upward lift, reducing friction on car tires, increasing mileage?

Question

Might be a silly question .. but still thought would ask.. By upward lift I mean, the car just glides on the road at about 1-2 inches when travelling at speeds of over 80-90 miles per hour How much will be the impact on stbility of the car? Is it impossible to design such cars ?

Answer 1

At that speed, you want more weight on the tires, otherwise you can lose controll very easily.
As far as creating the upward lift, you would be using some sort of air dam or other body modification to create that lift. To create the lift, you would be using your cars forward speed to build up that cusion of air, and that would require power. There is a point where your tires would no longer be able to put enough power to the ground (due to reduced contact patch/reduced friction) from the lift, and you would spin out.
Also, the energy to create the lift needs to come from somewhere, in this case your engine, and it would not do your mileage any favors.

Answer 2

Lift would take away traction and handling. That is exactly opposite of what you want. You need the contact patch of the tires (for traction wider=better) If you look at any performance car including racing, they are looking for down force at high speeds. Lift without large stabilizing wings like an airplane would result in complete lack of control. Passenger cars from the early sixties experienced this when the speed began increasing, weight decreased and aerodynamics had not been fully explored for cars. This is where spoilers came in. Great thought but the world is still not ready for flying cars!

Answer 3

it would not be difficult to design lift properties into automobiles. however; this would be counter productive. an auto is meant to function safely in two dimensions. it relies on traction and adherence to road surfaces to do so. since you cannot predict wind velocity or direction while driving on our nations streets and highways you cannot predict its affect on a moving vehicle ( any car can lift under the right circumstances. the problem becomes how do you control where it lands if it lifts more than you anticipate). the flying, skidding, and drifting you see in auto commercials is not realistic and very few of us could afford the resulting insurance hike.

Answer 4

kinda like a flying car??? too many accidents can happen. a whole bunch of research is needed too. the standard brakes on your car will not work because the wheels wont be on the ground and the engine will need changing because it may be too heavy. also all the body panels need changing to make the car lighter. all this will compromise safety in accidents. also new steering system and EVERYTHING is needed. also everyone who drives a car will have to learn how to drive again because driving two inches off the ground is harder than driving on the ground. then we need to think about flying cop cars, which is going to be need because regular car are too slow for the flying car. and who will pay for them..., tax payers like you and me, then the taxes will go up and we all have to vote for it. then we will also need flying ambulences to help the people who dont know how to drive the flying car who get into accidents, that will cost tax payers even more money. then well all get mad. plus, we will need to have flying car schools which will be funded by the state (more taxes). so now a pack of cigarettes cost $550 and gas (if we use the same fossil fuel) will cost and estimated $9000 a gallon since the car will be going faster and using more fuel the ccost will increase ever second by 100 dollars. by that time only bill gates can afford to drive. (and not for a very long time too). then we will also have to work out the kinks in the new flying car because everyone knows that new model cars all have little kinks. and then we need new baby seats designed for the flying car impact. manufactures of the car will need new tessting equipment to crash test the car because their original equipment was built to tset car driven on the ground and it would not work with a flying car and a whole bunch of research wil be eneeded. thats a whole bunch of money out of the manufacturers pocket so he'll just pass it along to you. the cost of the car will be in the hundreads of millions (unsure of exact cost). also all other nonflying cars will need to be kept off the roads because what good is a car that hovers two inches off the ground if youre talgating a regular (slower) car. unless you are proposing a new "flying car only" lane to be built onto every highway and city street. that only leeds to more taxes becuase a heck of a lot of people will be needed to build all those roads and those people need money (probably to buy flying cars). so taxes taxes taxes. plus why would we build all this for bill gates??? THANK YOU PACMAN FOR YOUR HELP.

Answer 5

Good idea but wrong premise.
You need the car on the road to take corners at high speed. Look at the race cars. They have spoilers to increase the down draft which gives them better stability.

Answer 6

Traction comes from the tires interacting with the road surface, basicly friction. So, good thinking, bad idea.

Answer 7

The exact opposite. Because it takes more energy to turn the tire a full rotation, they burn more gas. I lost 2 mpg when I went up 1" in my rim size.

Answer 8

it would be a VERY unstable and uncontrollable car... unless it was designed to be a hovercraft. then it would have to use a lot of energy to lift its mass off the ground.

Answer 9

we have them, they are called "aircraft". race cars have wings that create "down force" on the cars to make them stable at higher speeds. if these "wings" fail at high speed, the cars tend to lose control and sometimes become airborne and flip.

Answer 10

it will not be uncomforted but unstable yes. and you will have to go so fast to get the u lift to work