Aarush Ram Anandh VII-’c’ 22/03/2019
The Physics In Off-road
Cars
PART I
This document attempts to explain the basic physics behind the working of off-road cars and
driving.
What is off-road driving ?
As the name suggests it is a style of driving where the driver takes the car out of the normal
conditions to a more intense path for driving. It is usually done by experienced drivers but a normal
person can also do it if he/she is able to understand how the car and sport works.
Different styles of off-road driving:
Here I have listed a few styles of off-road driving. I will explain more in detail about each style and
the physics behind it.
Dune Bashing
Rock Crawling
Mud/dirt driving
Flat ground drifting
Leisure off-road driving
Dune bashing
It is an activity where cars/pickups drive on sand dunes and slide down. They
usually drive straight up hills and slide down at an angle. Momentum is an
important element in dune bashing you need enough speed to make it up the
hill. Another important factor in dune bashing is the Approach Angle,
Departure Angle and Break Over Angle .
Mud/Dirt driving
Mud/Dirt driving:In this form of off-road driving
the objective of this form is to drive through thick
and sloppy mud. You need to maintain a steady
speed so that you don't get stuck. They use tires
with studs to gain traction but they create a
higher pressure so there is a chance of sinking
into the mud, if you don't maintain speed you might get stuck. The
engine power and pressure is an important factor in mudding. The
engine torque is also important.
Flat ground drifting
This type of driving is when the rear tire losses grip while the front
tire guides the turn ie. the drift.
The driver must not take his/her feet of the accelerator or else the
drift will stop. The physics in a drift is the speed at which the driver
takes a turn to make the rear wheel loose grip. A few types of drifts
are power drift and E-drift.
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Aarush Ram Anandh VII-’c’ 22/03/2019
Rock Crawling
This sport is about going up tricky rocks and hillocks in a 4WD car.
Usually cars which go rock crawling use locking differential (locking
diffs )and have a high Approach Angle, Departure Angle and Break
Over Angle .The driver must know where each wheel currently is.
The cars usually have high engine torque to provide power at slow
speeds. The drivers usually don't cross 5 M/h speed. Hence the name
crawling.
Leisure off-road drivingLeisure off-road driving: Usually this type of off-
road driving is also known as green lanning. It means going on any path
which is not a road. Its name comes from the way people drive, it is
usually through forest/grassy trails where normal SUVs can drive through
without or little modifications. It is the least intense type of off-roading
and can be done without any training. The part of physics in this type is
the weight distribution and tire pressure.
PART II
In this part of the document I intend to explain the exact physics behind the cars and activity.
Approach Angle, departure angle & break over angle
Approach angle of the car determines the maximum climbing angle, or in easy words the
maximum angle of the slope that the car can climb.
Departure angle tells us the maximum angle of the car at which it can leave the slope front
first
The break over angle tells us whether the car will be able to cross the peak or not.
Tire pressure
Pressure is the amount of force applied per unit of area. The higher the
pressure higher the grip. Foe example the way studs increase the
pressure and give players higher grip. The same way off-road cars use
tires with deep tread and low surface area for higher grip.
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Aarush Ram Anandh VII-’c’ 22/03/2019
4 Wheel Drive
Every car has1engine so in a 4 wheel drive the engine power is distributed to all 4 wheels so all of
them can drive it forward and provided more traction. Most SUVs have a 4 wheel drive.
Wheel base
drift cars must be designed carefully or els the car might tip over if it is too tall or might not drift if
the car is too wide. The Ford Shelby Mustang and the Ford Focus RS are examples of excellent drift
cars
Engine Torque
in physics it is defined as “Torque is the amount of turning power you have”. But in cars it is the
ability of an engine to provide speed and power at low speeds and without revving the cars engine
too much.
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Aarush Ram Anandh VII-’c’ 22/03/2019
Locking diffs or differentials
You might have heard the car salesman of an SUV that the car has a rear locking differential. Now
what exactly does this mean? Many off-road cars have differentials ,these come to help when a car
is stuck in mud, rock,dirt etc. in a 4wd car engine torque is distributed as 25% for each wheel. Lets
say that you have gone mudding and your rear right wheel is stuck. An open diff will spin the wheel
with the least resistance and only 25% torque is not enough to get your car out of the mud and you
need 50% how will you do this? Now you need to enable the rear diff lock. Locking your wheel
connects them to one axle so now both wheels can spin on one axle with 50% of the engine torque
regardless of the resistance.
Open Diffs
when a car takes a left turn the right wheel covers a larger distance the other wheel or vice-versa.
Now if we have a locked diff then how do we solve this problem as the tire would start to wear out.
We solve this problem using an open differential. This allows both wheels to gain power but spin at
different speeds to cover a torn without spoiling the tires. But as mentioned power goes to the wheel
with the least resistance.
Conclusion
Physics plays an important role in our lives and cars. Without this subject even building a cycle
would be impossible. forget cars! Hence I conclude this document by stating that we must give
importance to physics as it appears in everything.
