Some of you subscribed to this channel because you've seen these
technical videos in which I explain how
cars or motorcycles work or tutorials where
I give driving tips... and then? Did I stop doing them?
Have I then decided to focus solely on vlogs?
which according to the numbers, are liked by many
but aren't perhaps the reason why some of you subscribed in the first place
the answer is: no!
You don't know this but for the past year I've been writing
a series of about 70 technical videos
on cars and motorcycles, about
mechanics, physics, technical functioning,
driving tutorials... I mean, lots of things!
All of this to tell you that I'm working on it
and of this season's projects is this one
so if you're interested in this sort of videos, and you're not subscribed to the channel yet
do it now, because in just a bit
where's gonna start with a bang!
In today's video we're gonna talk about a topic we've hear of often
which most of you already know of, but perhaps not
everyone know exactly
how to apply it to driving, that is:
the weight transfer
What's the weight transfer? I'm gonna tell you right now
a part of the physics phenomena that are at the base of this topic,
I already address in the video
in which I explained why the front brakes brake more than the rear ones
So here I will address them quickly
In case you didn't see that video and some passage is not clear
I advise you to go check it. There's the link below
When a motorcycle
or a car go on at any speed, the Physical Principle of Inertia applies.
When a body is moving and you want to slow it down,
it will resist the slowing down
in the same way
when a body is moving or is still and you want to speed it up
it opposes resistance to acceleration
so we take our vehicle that is going to 100 km per hour
and we hit the brakes
it is as if we apply a force at ground level that goes in the opposite direction
that pulls our vehicle backwards
as I said, however, due to the inertia effect
our vehicle opposes this force with a force equal and opposite in the other direction
placed in the center of mass of the vehicle
since these forces are not on the same plane, the vehicle would tend to tilt forward
but
this tilting is is dampened by the suspensions
So it happens that when braking the front suspensions are compressed
while the rear ones are stretched
So the front suspensions are much more loaded,
while the rear ones are unloaded.
the so-called weight transfers occurs
the load of the car moves to the front wheels
which are thus crushed to the ground
when instead we accelerate it happens exactly the opposite
The rear suspensions are compressed
while the front ones loosen.
We have a weight transfer to the rear
Now, the motorcycles are a bit
bitches, 'cause when we accelerate
Also, if there is a load transfer at the rear
the rear suspension tends to loosen
This is a very special phenomenon that I do not want to go into right now,
but I'll make a video for it because it's a bomb
So let's go back to our weight transfer. Now that we understood what it is
What do we need it for? Let's start with the cars
when we brake, as I said, we have a weight transfer on the front
So the front tires, when braking, are much more crushed to the ground
Now, as I explained in that video
the more the front tire is crushed to the ground the more grip it has, therefore
if we start to
turn while the car is still braking
the car has more much grip in front, so it turns more
it can enter the curve much faster
while instead if we
release the brake with the car straight and then steer
the car
will make more effort to do the curve because
we unloaded the front, and it has less grip in front
so the drivers, in order to go fast on the track
tend to brake as late as possible
and bring the braking right into the curve
to allow the front tires to load and enter the curve faster
easy, right? Not exactly.
Because we've focused on the front, but
we forgot about the rear. If the front loads
and has more grip, the rear will unload
so it has less grip.
So what happens is that if we exaggerate with
bringing the braking into the curve.. see the movement I'm doing?
the car tends to lose the rear
and we spin
Or another unpleasant thing could happen
As we turn the steering wheel,
if we have too much pressure on the brake,
the front wheels are too stressed, the block, and the car
goes straight
The skill of a driver is to find the right limit in loading the front,
at that limit
that allows him to enter the curve fast
without blocking the front and without losing the rear axle
while when we accelerate, the opposite happens, that is
the rear has more grip
bringing back the load to the rear
can be very useful because
we stabilize the car,
and this is especially useful when entering the big fast curves
if we're entering in a big curve, fast,
we feel the car that tends to
leave behind, if we give some gas
we bring load to rear, we make it more stable
and the car does the curve much better
if instead in the big fast curves
we feel that the car does not turn, then we
must give load back to the front, so we just have to let go of the gas pedal
to bring the load back to the front, or
slightly touch the brake pedal.So this makes you understand why
when driving in the track
you don't do the turns just with the steering wheel, but also
by helping the car by moving the load
in the front or in the rear, using the accelerator and the brake
And what about on the street? On the road
the keyword is "safety". You don't go looking for the limit
you don't try and do the curve as fast as possible
you try to get to your destination... alive.
and what we often hear is "don't brake
in the curve, ever". Is that true? It's not forbidden
I've personally hit the brake
in the curve, but this is because my experience
on the track taught me
how to brake in a curve, and how to handle the car in case it were to swerve.
Those who don't have experience risk killing themselves. Why?
because when we do a curve, for example, on the left
we know how our body goes right
that is, the weight of the car is transferred to the side
so we have the external tires that are very stressed
if we were to brake in that moment
the weight transfers entirely
on the right front tire
while the right rear tire unloads
so it has grip in front, but not in the back,
and car risks spinning.
this one you've just seen is one of the worst
accidents I've ever had, when
I did the season on the 500 Abarth, and this
accident demonstrates how much the weight transfer
can be dangerous
in the morning during free tests I had four used tires
and so in the curve where I had the accident
I simply removed the gas, I threw the car inside and I accelerated,
and the car stayed.
For the qualifying, having
no one giving me advice about what to do,
I did the mistake
of making the technical choice that is usually done in the small tracks like Franciacorta
that is putting new tires
in the front, and the used ones in the rear
so that I had more grip in front, so that the car turned better
that is okay in small tracks, but it's suicide in big ones
so what happened? as soon as
I let go of the accelerator
and I inserted it
there you see me putting the foot on the accelerator, but I didn't press on it
letting go of the accelerator, caused
a weight transfer on the front, in that moment
I steered, and having the new tires in front
and the used ones behind,
I had too much grip in front, this allowed for the car to
swerve, did a spin, and then unfortunately
it started flipping over.
And the other serious mistake I made
caused by inexperience, because I was just starting out
was that of braking once the car
started swerving, 'cause by braking I
made things worse,
I unloaded even more the rear and I increased the swerve
since it was a front traction, had I
fully accelerated
I would have probably avoided the crash, 'cause
1) by accelerating I would have given back some load to the rear
the rear would have had some grip back and it would have gone straight again
2) since the traction was in front,
by accelerating, the front
would have gone back to the right position
and this accidents proves how important it the weight transfer
because by
simply playing with accelerator and brake
we can either regain
control of the car in a dangerous situation
or put the car in a dangerous situation
And often it happens to me on the highway to see people who think they have entered the curve too fast
and they hit the brakes in the middle of it
and this is very dangerous because if there is wet on the ground
or if maybe touches a white line that's a little wet
or maybe there is someone behind who is driving faster and needs to hit the brakes
you risk an accident
paradoxically, what is the safest thing to do in a curve?
accelerating a bit
why? the moment you keep slightly accelerated and
you keep a constant speed
you have the same weight
both in front and in the rear
so the car is perfectly stable.
So it's much safer to brake before the curve
let go of the brake, and when you enter the curve
keep the accelerator a bit open, so you keep a constant speed
Ok but we know
emergency can happen on the road, it might happen that
we enter a curve and feel we're too fast
what do we do in this case? the best thing
is to let go of the accelerator
because the moment you let go of the accelerator two things happen
1) the car slows down
so slowing down is like braking a little, so it slows down
and it turns more, moreover
by slowing down a bit of load goes to the front
having the front more loaded allows the car to turn more
if instead you feel like you've entered too fast
and you're going off road, you're fucked.
nothing much you can do then. The best thing to do is
not to hit the brake,
otherwise you unbalance the car and you turn, or you block the tires and go straight
but you should brake
gently,
anyway, try it. take your car, go on
a road with big curves, like the highway
look for a big curve, and try entering the curve
by getting ready for the curve and pressing slight on the accelerator, constantly
at some point during the curve
keeping the steering wheel in the same position
let go of the accelerator. You'll notice that
the car - by keeping the steering wheel in the same position -
will start turning more. In this way you'll start to
see how the weight transfer influences
the car's behaviour.
Ok so what about on a motorcycle? More or less the same things apply for the bike
although on the bike there are more complex dynamics
for example the bike, by accelerating or braking,
it stretches or shortens
the bike never has the same length,
to make a curve then you need to lean, and by leaning the suspensions compress
so it's not just the weight transfer that determines the behaviour
but there are many other phenomena.
But more or less the basics are the same
as we explained in the video with Canepa, in fact
when you brake you
give load to the front
as you can see in this picture of me from Misano, notice that
when braking the rear part stretched
but in front is compressed
so when you ride on the track and you enter
a curve with the brake in hand, the front has more load
and more grip, and holds better.
And the bikes turns better.
Of course you can't have too much brake, otherwise..
I know all about it
Something that instead on a bike
I've found out
it's very useful when I analysed the comparison between Luca Salvadori and me
is aiming the gas
if you didn't watch that video, do it, 'cause I did a huge analysis
if you recall, when Luca is leaning
before accelerating, what does he do?
He opens the gas, and then he accelerates
why? because by opening the gas
he transfers weight to the rear tire
he crushes it to the ground, and gives it more grip
so when he'll accelerate
and unload 200HP to the ground,
the tire is ready, it's already crushed, it already has grip
hence there's less chance to slip, and this thing
I've tested on the pit bike. I was used to
the R1 that has 200HP
so you gotta accelerate when the bike is straight,
so curve, when I had to exit a curve I put the pitbike straight, and I accelerated
and the experts told me "that's not necessary,
you do that with a 1000! Here you have 14HP"
you can give it full gas
even with the bike fully leaning
but first you gotta open the gas to load the rear tire
and then you can give it all
in the famous crash where I gave life to that work of art
I fell because
in the heat of reaching those in front, with the bike leaning, I
accelerated all right away
I didn't load the rear tire
I didn't give it time to get grip, --- and it slipped
Finally, the weight transfer explains why
the powerful cars have rear traction. Why?
When you accelerate
the load transfer to the rear
and the front unloads. So, if
the front is unloaded and you have too much power
the tires don't have load, no grip,
and they can't unload the power, on the contrary
the more power you have, the stronger
the acceleration is, the more load the rear tires have
the more they are crushed to the ground, the more grip they have
the more they can unload the power to the ground
this is the reason. And to conclude
I want to clarify that using the braking
to load the front and enter the curve
depends also on the tires used
every pilot
needs to adapt his driving according to the tires
for example, when we drove the gp3,
they told us that the Pirelli they use there
when braking, don't work well sideways
but they work well only in this direction
so with these tires, instead of bringing
the braking right into the curve, it's much better to 100% brake
when the car is straight, let go of the brake
and enter. Because those tires
work like that. Ok! I hope you liked this video
on the weight transfer
I hope you learned a few things to apply to your driving
either on the track or the road,
and if you wanna see more videos like this one, subscribe
to the channel 'cause they are coming up


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