(11) Inner Wheel Lifting, Pt. 2

Inner wheel lifting can’t use for gaining traction. Because a tire off the asphalt can’t produce any lateral or longitudinal force. So theoretically, lifting a one wheel on purpose reduces 25% of car’s all available grip.

And furthermore even when not at inner wheel lifting, but at hard cornering, outside tires doing more work than the inside tires result in increased load sensitivity on outside tires. As load increases on a tire, the coefficient of friction between the tire and the road decreases. Lateral load transfer is the amount of vertical load increased on the outer tires and reduced from the inner tires when the car is hard cornering. A pair of tires with lateral load transfer between them is not capable of generating the same amount of cornering force that the same pair of tires could, if they were equally laden. Most performance/sport/touring/grand touring cars come in RWD & AWD and not in FWD because as the acceleration itself causes the front wheels’ traction to decrease.

Inner wheel lifting will change handling characteristics. Once lifted, roll stiffness will be dropped by significant amount and this will increase the chance of rollover. And if shifted load transfer reaches half the weight of the vehicle it will start to roll. Heavy vehicles will roll before skidding, while passenger cars usually roll only when they leave the road. So you should have good control skills and experience to do the inner wheel lift under complete control.

So, cars are built by default to reduce the load transfer. Lowering the centre of gravity towards the ground by reducing ride height and increasing the track width by changing wheel offsets are some of these things. Performance cars are designed as low as possible and usually have an extended wheelbase and track. In addition to these roll bars are fitted.

It is very difficult to change the lateral load transfer after a car is designed & built and came out of the production line. Suspension setup & tuning, caster angle, spring rate, stiff suspension etc. are very important in that case. These things never change the weight transfer (only lowering the CG & increasing the track width will do that), but they distribute the load between the axles in a much more controllable manner.

So now you know the theory let’s move on to practical. So how hard all try to reduce the load transfer; there are benefits of doing it. Practically inner wheel lift a good technique to; slip into tight spaces / get into the inside / slip pass overtaking / closing the gap / hard cornering / maintaining pace / momentum etc. You have to decide when & why to inner wheel lift. Sometimes that tight space or ditch is the point that will decide the outcome of the match. What is your strategy for it and how you tackle it would decide whether you win or lose.

Even after you do all the necessary tuning to reduce load transfer, you can still do the inner wheel lift at will. FR, MR, 4WD & FF; nothing is no exception. Setup & tuning could be vary, but technique remains the same.

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