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Vehicle’s Dynamics – Episode 2: Body Roll
In our previous episode we had an overview of the main behaviors that a car can face based on the action of forces due to weight and speed (mostly). This month we analyze in detail why and how these situations affect the car and our driving, trying to understand how harmful or not they are, and how to avoid and correct them. Let’s start with BODY ROLL.
As we said, body roll is a rotational motion of the suspended body of the car itself, but we can more simply (and grossly) define it as an inclination on one side or the other of the vehicle body, due to several factors, including the speed with which you are currently facing a corner, the steering angle, the weight of the car body itself and the suspension settings. Obviously, the more rigid they are, the lower the side rolling will be. A softer setting and a massive weight will lead instead to a more accentuated roll that, going to unbalance the weights, can lead to a loss of grip and this would require an emergency maneuver.
You will therefore understand that avoiding body roll is important, not only in terms of performance, but also for your safety at the wheel, but unlike other factors, body roll does not depend by you in first place, as by the car itself. Logic is that if you are driving an SUV, we expect a different behavior from that of a small track-focused sports car, but nowadays, several cars of different segments are equipped with technology and adaptive mechanical, that depending on the road surface and your speed, adapt the stiffness of the suspension, so as to offer greater comfort and safety, going to limit this annoying body roll.
In the next episode, we will continue our overview related to the vehicle’s dynamics and soon we will deepen the secrets regarding how to use power and weight of a car in the best way possible.
Words by Carlo Brema
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