Covini's Six wheeled Supercar!!

[tha_new_guy]

http://www.gizmo.com.au/public/News/...articleid=2754

Check out this Six-wheeled supercar! How exactly would that work, and is it practical??

[Hudson]

The Covini isn't the first six-wheeled car, and not even the first "street" six-wheeled car. The Tyrell-Elf race car of the late 1970s-early 1980s had two sets of steering wheels which, they said, provided lower frontal area (better aerodynamics) and kept the steering wheels attached to the ground with a larger contact patch. A small car manufacturer in England, Panther offered a six-wheeled vehicle around the same time.

[Stratocaster5292]

I was expecting to see 4 wheels towards the back and 2 up front.

Besides, I think the 6 wheeled car from Extraordinary League of Gentlemen looked much better then this car with 6 wheels.

[Lakehaze]

This could go two ways;
1:Its so ugly that people will think 6 wheels = UGLY, and nobody will build another 6-wheel car for another 30-some years.
2:Its so ugly that somebody will take it as an offence to the inginuity involved in its concept, and build a better one 5 years from now.

Four steering wheels is a concept that has never really gotten off the ground.
The F-1 car concept started in order to reduce lift overall. Big, open wheels act as a wing as the air travels over the top of it. The result is lost downforce. 4 little wheels create more drag and less lift than 2 big ones, the same effect as a spoiler. The car ran for 2 or 3 years with a deal with Goodyear. Goodyear made special 10" racing rubber for the single team. It was really very nice of them. But it didn't catch on and nobody else was buying. Goodyear continued to produce the tires for the team, but they would not re-engineer them to keep up with the 21" competition. The 21" tires were evolving to better tech while the little ten inchers were aging. Eventually the team had to abandon the idea due to a lack of supply. Nobody since has tried again in F-1.
The concept was sound, and I believe the car did extremely well, finishing 1st once and placing competitvely the other races.
In an open wheel car you get less lift, but in regular cars there are benifits as well. In a mid engine car, it acts to counterweigh the motors weight. Using fullsize tires, like this car does, means 50% more rubber on the pavement. If the car were all(and i mean ALL)-wheel-drive, that would be 50% more pulling grip. And because most cars use 60-80% of braking power in the front, that nearly doubles your straight line stopping ability. The second set of wheels turn to a slightly less degree than the front due to the fact that they are closer to the rear wheels, which dont turn at all. This allows the tires to bite harder into the pavement and pull the front around the curve. Not to mention all the extra weight given to the steering wheels.
Bye-Bye understeer! There are problems tho. Weight is the big one, but weight can be managed to be a benifit as well. Complexity is the other. For wealthy fun-lovers, its not at all a big deal, and for racing, brakes and wheel hardware are not common failures. But it is 50% more hardware and thus 50% more to break. (more brake and more break, silly)

PS, New Guy, I love whats in your signature. What is it? And I like your little street-race cartoon, Its too bad they're FWD tho. You should edit it and move those great little tire marks to the rear wheels.

[tha_new_guy]

The car in my sig is a well-modded (read: far from stock body paneling) Mosler MT900 Photon. Don't know if you are familiar with the company, but they put 400 hp tweaked LS6 engines onto a modified mid-engine corvette chassis, and the final product weighs in at 900 kg (or about 1980 lbs), less than a Honda CRX.

Here's the company website.
http://www.moslerauto.com/

[BOBIDESIGN]

The first production 6-wheel car is English "Panther",which is produced in 2 numbers (as I know). In the year 1995-1997 in my country (Bulgaria) two invesrors and one designer with support of the engineering company Intechna began with first Bulgarian supercar,using supercharged Canadian yacht engine with 750 HP.
I have plan to build my own 6-wheeler,but the engine will be placed in the front area.

[clawhammer]

Is that FWD or RWD?

[BOBIDESIGN]

Originally Posted by clawhammer

Is that FWD or RWD?

The original "Panther" and the "Covini" are rear-engined cars with rear wheel drive. My car will be front-engined with rear wheel drive.

[Ground Rat]

That thing is ugly.