The world's most advanced hot rod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w7_N9Aenn8

I was cruising around youtube and found this. Thought it was pretty novel.

Thanks. That is worth watching. The car is gorgeous, and even a luddite like me can appreciate the clever work involved.

I wish they had talked a little more about the suspension system and less about the frame. Remote reservoir shocks aren't new, but that low profile packaging is interesting.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong; the guy didn't mention springs, so this must be the hydraulic equivalent of an airbag setup. Is that a fair summary?

From what I could tell, the in-wheel hydraulic cylinder just transfers motion into a hydraulic line(s) to a remote spring/shock unit. There's definitely a coil spring there. The shock part looked dual-adjustable, and he said in the video ride height was adjusted at the remote 'shock.'

Thanks to huge, deep, modern wheels, they can now get it inside the wheel (more or less), but the concept is not new, and not, um, very good. It doesn't produce any camber gain in compression to compensate for body roll.

Morgan's been using a similar suspension (inboard of the pizza cutter wheels) since slightly after dirt became refined enough for broad adoption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliding_pillar_suspension

JeffHarbert wrote: There's definitely a coil spring there. The shock part looked dual-adjustable, and he said in the video ride height was adjusted at the remote 'shock.'

I may need to go back and rewatch it.....I heard the bit about ride adjustment, but didn't see any spring. That's why I was comparing it to something like this

ransom wrote: Thanks to huge, deep, modern wheels, they can now get it inside the wheel (more or less), but the concept is not new, and not, um, very good. It doesn't produce any camber gain in compression to compensate for body roll.

Lots of cars are set up for hard parking. This may be one of them.

ransom wrote: Morgan's been using a similar suspension (inboard of the pizza cutter wheels) since slightly after dirt became refined enough for broad adoption. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliding_pillar_suspension

Then all we need's a fancy laminated ash chassis and we're good to go!

(FWIW, it is still a very pretty car. I bet it looks really nice at car shows, and the CNC tool marks on those machined bits make it stand out. Think of it as Boyd 2.0)

ransom wrote: It doesn't produce any camber gain in compression to compensate for body roll.

After looking at it 3 times, I am not sure about that. It seems like the way they have the suspension units angled may provide some camber gain.

coil spring and damper are remote-mounted vertically at the firewall near the hood. think of it as a pushrod-actuated coilover, only in this case the pushrod is hydraulic.