Lessons for control
Page 27
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• A skid-simulation system manufactured by Astatic Cars of Brands Hatch will be available on a Ford Transit in six weeks, and on an Iveco Ford Cargo by the end of the year.
The company hopes to attract interest from major fleet operators of such vehicles by offering skid-control lessons at the drivers' place of work.
Skid-control lessons are available from the company in its three Ford Fiesta cars at the Brands Hatch racing circuit. Cost is £46 for a 45minute lesson.
The system has been developed over two years by Astatic's John Tomlinson. It allows all four wheels of the vehicles to be steered to recreate a sliding sensation at low speeds, says the company, in perfect safety. Tomlinson says his inspiration for the system came from the wheels on a shopping trolley.
At first sight the Fiestas appear to be perfectly ordinary except for the very light steering. This is because there is no direct connection between the steering wheel and the road wheels. The drive-by-wire system takes the position of the steering wheel, and converts it into electrical energy. These electrical impulses are fed to a micro-processor which also takes the instructor's counterinstructions into account, before sending controls to the servo motors controlling the steering for each wheel.
The instructor's hand-held control allows the recreation of sliding on ice, various degrees of understeer or oversteer, and four-wheel drift conditions as well as opposite and rearwheel steering.
Tomlinson's instruction, and the system, encourage the driver to use the controls properly in a smooth and progressive manner. The stopping-onice exercise requires the use of cadence braking, but the system will not return the use of the steering and the brakes to the driver unless the exercise is canted out properly and the brakes are fully released each time. Likewise, the oversteering exercise is not just a lesson in opposite-lock steering; it teaches the driver to correct the steering gently or the vehicle will continue to oversteer.
Astatic has had several enquiries from emergency services throughout the UK, and also had some interest from fleet users. The company hopes eventually to franchise the operation, although it is trying to build interest in the system first.