A tilting car is a type of automobile that has the ability to change the angle between the road and the bottom of the passenger cabin in a way that allows it to avoid rolling over while the vehicle is driving through a curve. Tilting is critically important for narrow-track vehicles because unlike wider vehicles, the acceleration required to make a non-tilting narrow vehicle skid during a curve is less than that required to make it roll over; tilting allows narrow-track vehicles to "lean into the curve". Tilting cars may have three or four wheels.

Prototypes and examples Several prototypes tilting cars have been built since 1950. Some include:

Ford Gyron (1961) Lean Machine (General Motors, 1970s) F-300 Life-jet (Mercedes-Benz, 1997) Carver One (Carver, 2002), CLEVER (2003) Lumeneo Smera (2008) Nissan Land Glider (2009) Tilter (2011) Toyota i-Road (Toyota, 2013)

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class (C217) was a production car that could tilt up to 2.5 degrees, detecting curves with a camera and acceleration sensor. Its production model was first unveiled in 2014.

See also

Tilting three-wheeler Tilting train Narrow-track vehicle

References