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Subscribe to this threadAutoline on Autoblog with John McElroy
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nataku83 @ May 8th 2008 4:28PM
The resultant torque from a flywheel is the cross product (perpendicular to) the angular momentum vector (axis on which the flywheel spins) and the applied torque (axis about which the car is turning - this is essentially up and down). If you align the two, everything is fine, there won't be noticeable effects from a simplified 2d turn, however going around a banked turn would cause the car to dive or lift (depending on the direction of the flywheel or the direction of the body roll). Fortunately, you generally have pretty minimal roll angles and they're usually not applied quickly. Aligning the flywheel in a different direction would cause severe pitching or rolling moments to be applied to the car when going around a turn - not a good thing.
Also, I hate to think of the safety issues associated with a car getting into an accident and a 10 pound flywheel spinning at 65,000 rpm suddenly being exposed to the atmosphere, debris and the people involved. I'm sure these specs would be different for a commercially available vehicle, but the system only works if the flywheel is storing a large amount of energy. Vacuums are also difficult to maintain, and materials behave strangely in them (outgassing is a major problem, and aerospace grade materials that would be necessary for lubricating bearings, etc.. are very expensive).
It sounds like it might be a promising idea, but there are certainly a lot of challenges involved.