I’m not a mechanical engineer or a physicist, but Wikipedia says polar momentum only applies to cylindrical objects and should not be applied to non-cylindrical objects because of torsional deformation?
They’re not (up to a point - weight is detrimental to performance however), but they also are not necessarily hand in hand.
Out of curiosity how did you order? I reserved back in November 2019 when there weren’t much details. I thought I had chosen the light interior on my reservation.
Some of these posts are making me hungry.At my local Subway, the Italian B.M.T. costs more than the Spicy Italian, but contains less protein and has yucky smelly ham. Yet they're both sandwiches offered on the menu and built by the same "artists." ?
I’d say at lower levels of luxury and performance, you are correct. But at some point, they start to diverge. The must luxurious seat with the smoothest ride in the world isn’t the sportiest option. An engine that revs to the stratosphere on its way to producing incredible horsepower is not the most luxurious option.
The shell of the car doesn't "torsionally distort", but the coil springs do. Anyway, notice how cars lean out on corners as they hit the apex? That's polar momentum rotating the top of the car around the center of gravity. That lifts the weight off the inside tires, reducing the traction. Your outside tires are now doing all the work. This also cools the inside tires, and heats the outside tires. Ever notice that sports cars are lower than regular cars? That's because a lower car has lower wind resistance, but ALSO because it reduces the polar momentum. Our Mach-E's are very high cars, which puts the weight out into a bigger circumference "cylinder", causing even more polar momentum. EVERYTHING rotates around it's center-of-mass (center-of-gravity), irrespective of its physical shape. Top-heavy cars swaying back-and-forth around corners are slower, and heat the tires up more. They're also harder to control, on the street or a race course.
Wow! Cool! Thanks so much for the explanation. Follow-on question - doesn’t the heavy battery pack at the bottom make our cars effectively a “lower” car overall, than an equivalent internal combustion engine car? I may be wronged but I’m guessing a lot of mass in an internal combustion engine car is in the engine, which is at least two feet above the ground and sort of centered over the front wheels, while most of the mass on our cars is in the battery pack, which is evenly distributed between the four wheels and about. 8 inches above the ground (I’m sort of averaging the midpoint of the height of the battery pack above the ground)? I must be missing something though because in your picture of the 1400, it’s definitely leaning heavily to the outside (the inside rear tire appears to be off the ground)? So the massive battery pack isn’t enough to hold the car down?The shell of the car doesn't "torsionally distort", but the coil springs do. Anyway, notice how cars lean out on corners as they hit the apex? That's polar momentum rotating the top of the car around the center of gravity. That lifts the weight off the inside tires, reducing the traction. Your outside tires are now doing all the work. This also cools the inside tires, and heats the outside tires. Ever notice that sports cars are lower than regular cars? That's because a lower car has lower wind resistance, but ALSO because it reduces the polar momentum. Our Mach-E's are very high cars, which puts the weight out into a bigger circumference "cylinder", causing even more polar momentum. EVERYTHING rotates around it's center-of-mass (center-of-gravity), irrespective of its physical shape. Top-heavy cars swaying back-and-forth around corners are slower, and heat the tires up more. They're also harder to control, on the street or a race course.
Yes, the battery pack gives EVs a lower center of gravity. But adding a sunroof up top still hurts performance...that's why it's an optional extra-cost option on the GT/GTPE...Ford assumed a performance driver would not want it. The car in the photo is my Focus RS, an ICE car (350 hp, 350 lb/ft torque, 3350 lbs.). It has no battery pack...it's just an illustration of a "non-cylindrical" object rotating about its axis from polar momentum. My Mach-E GTPE weighs 4830 lbs. But performance improvement is measured in grams of lost weight...every single pound lost counts (especially at the top of the car).
