Watch Bentley's Weird New Anti-Body Roll System At Work
The problem with building cars to be heavy and luxurious is that any pretence of handling prowess gets squashed like Trevor the Accord beneath a borrowed tank.
Bentley has been working on that, though, with a new anti-roll system planned for the all-new 2018 Continental GT, and this video shows it in action at (where else?) the Nurburgring. The purple-blue semi-camouflaged GT in the footage can be seen tyre-squealing its way around the circuit with little or no body roll. It looks… weird, bringing back memories of the old Bose system that was tested on a Lexus LS400 back in the 1990s. The way the car moves doesn’t tally with what your brain is telling you should be happening.
This apparently physics-defying technology is, in fact, just good old brute force and engineering. The system, called Dynamic Ride, uses electric motors to push the anti-roll bars down onto the outside wheels, preventing over two tonnes of Bentley from trying to scrape its door handles on the track surface. The new car will be ‘a lot’ lighter, which makes the system’s job easier, but the diet won’t shave more than 350kg or so at most – and probably less.
Agility will take a big step up, Bentley says, while elsewhere the new car will take a lot of inspiration from the successful Bentayga SUV. It’s expected that most of the Continental GT’s interior technology will come directly from the Bentayga. There will be V8 and V12 engines with around 530bhp and 600bhp respectively.
Via: Autocar
Comments
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Citroen Xantia Activa had that. No bodyroll. It could manage 1.1G in the corners, as much as a 911 GT2 at the time.
Thank you. They mention the Bose system that was never fitted to any production car, but forgot that Citroën sold a certain number of Xantia Activa…
You can listen to the screams of 10000 souls in pain when it goes around the corner.
Tha’s why any EV brand will gone make something good… FCA, PSA, GM, VW Group and all others old car makers have quality, proper engineering and are excellent!
https://youtu.be/3KPYIaks1UY
Bose had this 30 years ago
Wonder what the Bentley driver was thinking when he passed the Z4… “Take that germans!”
Oh, wait a second.
“We’ll just take all the body roll, and replace it with understeer!”
Y’know, Bentley, you could also make the car L I G H T E R
Maybe it’s because I’m not as familiar with the weight of this car, but shedding 350kg, which if my mental math serves me is somewhere in the 750lbs neighborhood give or take, is nothing to scoff at. That’s a lot of weight to shrug off a car.
So, Lotus also did this way back in the early 80s.
Plus, I recall Porsche getting a lot of criticism over the 991’s PDCC because it basically doesn’t let you feel how hard the car is working. Lean is quite important in gauging how much you’re using a car’s cornering ability.
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