Tired of hearing about Ferrari’s electric car that looks like it put another car in a Ferrari-shaped koozie? Think the wheels are falling off of the Italian supercar company now? Just wait. CarBuzz has discovered a new patent from Ferrari filed with the USPTO that will have the wheels actually coming off. For safety, of course.
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.
What If The Wheels Came Off?
Ferrari Wheel PatentFerrari
Car companies are used to finding ways to keep wheels attached even in crashes. Even Ferrari’s F1 race cars have tethers meant to make sure the wheels and tires stick around in crashes at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. But this new patent could completely change that for the next generation of Italian supercars.
In setting up the invention, Ferrari explains that when it comes to angled front crashes, suddenly keeping the wheels in place isn’t a good thing. In the patent, Ferrari’s engineers and technical writers explain that hitting an obstacle at any angle where the front (or rear) wheels don’t impact at the same moment is a big problem for safety.
“This angled crash, therefore, generates forces on the front wheels of the vehicle, which are different from one another,” it reads. Whichever wheel hits first takes the brunt of the impact. That, Ferrari says, can lead the wheel to strike the chassis and could “lead to the partial collapse of the chassis.”
Safety regulators already know about this. There’s an entire US FMVSS test that involves a 30° barrier, though the crash is only at 30 mph. The IIHS also tests in crashes where just one front wheel strikes a barrier.
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Having the leading wheel detach in a controlled manner could make it easier to pass those crash tests without adding weight to the vehicle. Since the wheel isn’t being forced back against the chassis, it can’t buckle the chassis and enter the small space where your feet belong.
Shear Audacity Could Make Ferraris Safer
Ferrari Wheel PatentFerrari
The challenge then becomes how to do it in a way that won’t also shear off the next time you hit a bump. Ferrari’s invention is a change to how the front edge of the control arm mounts to the body.
It doesn’t fundamentally change how the control arm is attached. The part is still bolted to the chassis through a bushing that allows the arm to pivot with body roll and absorb vibrations from the road.
What Ferrari has changed is the bar that mounts the bushing to the body. It is compromised in a very specific way, allowing it to fail at two weakened zones in the event of a crash.
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When the mount fails, the front attachment point of the suspension separates from the chassis. In a crash, it can then be pushed out of the wheel well by the force of the impact, which gets it out of the way of the rest of the car coming forward and eliminates the potential to smash back into the chassis and collapse it.
Because the other suspension parts, including tie rods and the rear mounting of the control arm, are still attached, the wheel won’t separate from the car completely. You won’t end up with a heavy piece of Italian alloy and carbon ceramic brakes flying toward homes or traffic. But this patent could have you walking away from a crash where previously you might not have.
Source: US Patent and Trademark Office
