Hit the gas in a high-powered V6 or V8 combustion car, and it rocks. Literally. You can feel the car or SUV shift to the right as the engine’s torque pulls it in that direction, provided the engine is mounted north-south instead of transverse. CarBuzz has just found a new patent from Bentley that would give your electric car that same effect, no engine required.
How, exactly, does one mimic the rocking motion from engine torque without an engine? After perusing this patent, you might be sorry you asked that question. We’ll start with just two words: active suspension. Hold on, there’s some method to the madness here.
An Electric Car Meant To Feel Like A Vintage Muscle Car
Bentley Torque PatentBentley
Gas performance cars are crude, mean, angry machines. They make brutal noises and pull in ways that make the car feel like a beast waiting to erupt, and that’s all before you even turn a wheel. Bentley, which is not crude, mean, or angry, nevertheless wants to recreate that in multiple ways. There is already a patent for an ICE-like vibration that would run through the car, but it uses extra force generators rather than existing parts, and that isn’t good enough.
Bentley’s idea would use the active suspension system to simulate the rocking instead. So it would retract and extend the air spring on the right side of the car, moving that part of the body up and down. It could also do the same thing on the right rear, and use an opposite reaction on the left side of the vehicle to exaggerate the effect.
Related
The Ungentlemanly Racer: Bentley Brings The Noise With Exhaust Upgrade
It’s available for base and high-output models.
The active suspension systems controlling this would be able to move from 1/8 inch to 2 full inches. It would need to react very quickly, with actuation in no more than one second and a preference for no more than 0.5 seconds. It would be able to rock the car, but by less than a degree. Bentley calls that “a sufficiently perceptible effect, without unduly diminishing ride quality.” Can’t spill the rear seat passenger’s champagne, after all.
Brake Torque That EV On The Line
2023 Dodge Challenger Demon 170 Silver Drag Strip Wheely LaunchDodge
Bentley is also looking to replicate the effect of brake torquing a vehicle. Brake torque is when you press the gas with the brake pedal fully depressed. This sends torque to the drive wheels, which on a rear-wheel drive car causes the back to move as the engine pushes through the torque converter to the rear axle.
The point of brake torquing is to load the rear suspension and transfer weight to the rear tires for launch. Instead of using torque, though, Bentley would lower the rear suspension to fake the squat instead as part of the Launch Control mode.
Related
Bentley’s Infotainment Screens Of The Future Will Be Invisible To The Naked Eye
Future Bentley infotainment screens could hide in plain sight.
Bentley wouldn’t just create one profile for rocking the car and be happy with it. Instead, the patent suggests that the company would replicate “numerous automobiles.” So you would be able to pick different cars for emulated rocking. We can’t see Bentley going outside its own brand to copy, say, a 1969 Charger Daytona Hemi. But it could possibly replicate its own classic 6.75-liter V8 from the Arnage and others, or even the 3.0-liter engines from the 1920s.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
2008 Bentley Brooklands V8 engineBentley Motors
This is a patent that would make much more sense if it came from Dodge instead of Bentley. For a muscle car brand that introduced an amplified fake exhaust and trades on horsepower, it would be a good fit. But Bentley is all about comfort and quiet. Bentley is about sedate cruising with epic amounts of horsepower on demand. Because of that, this patent just feels strange.
But it’s yet another example of automakers trying to make EVs feel like gas-powered cars while missing the entire point. Smooth and silent a EV staples and aspects that most EV buyers seek out. Infusing them with even more fake aspects of internal combustion just makes one wonder: why bother with an EV at all if you want the combustion experience?
Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.
Source: UK Intellectual Property Office
