Front Spoiler vs Wider Wheels

I have a MCC Smart Car which has big problems with motorway crosswinds.

Which would improve its stability (forget looks, cornering etc) on the motorway the most:

Front Spoiler / Side Skirts or wider wheels?

Regards

Andy

Reply to
Dalesgate
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Not sure how a front spoiler would help if its crosswinds casuing the problems. And side skirts would probably make things worse as you'd be making even more surface area to be hit by the wind. Wider wheels may help a little, but i cant see it doing much. The problem with the Smart is that its relatively tall for its length, and very light - 2 problems that arent really feasible to fix without ruining the car. Could try driving with both windows open :)

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Have driven a smart before and experienced what you are talking about. I don't think any of the fixes you mention wold work though. The car is tall in comparison to it's short wheelbase - the sghort wheelbase especially will lead to what you are talking about here. Also consider the front wheels. They are narrower than the rears to induce understeer. Fitting wider front wheels/tyres would cause more problems than it would solve.The car is set up to be darty around slow speed corners. This is IMHO at the cost of poor high speed stability. In short, the problem is in the fundamental design of the car. IMHO you either learn to live with it or you get rid of the car.

Reply to
John Fitzgerald

"Dalesgate" wrote;

What the hell did you buy a puff/girl's car that's designed for running around town for if your doing motorway miles.

Non-of your idea's will work, cut the roof off or buy a sensible car.

Steven.

Reply to
Steven

In article , snipped-for-privacy@GETRID.hotmail.com spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

Neither, but a couple of sheets of heavy lead bolted underneath the car may help (but they will bugger up what the smart is best for, short nippy town journeys)

Reply to
MeatballTurbo

What kind of a marshmallow opinion is this?

The MCC Smart is a sensible car. How many cars do you see with one person in it and four empty seats?

Reply to
DervMan

Although the MCC Smart is tall and narrow, there are things you can do to improve crosswind stability. Using wider wheels up front is usually to cure understeer, although it may help in a crosswind.

Ideally, you need more turbulence from the car, which tends to suck it down. Does it have a rear spoiler?

Reply to
DervMan

crosswinds.

hey i agree

well not mine i only have 2 seats :-P

Reply to
Vamp

Yeah, but the smart doesn't have a built-in hair drier . . . :)

Reply to
DervMan

and that's bad, plus have you tried getting a hair cut in an MR2? wouldn't be easy as it's a bit of a sqeeze.

Reply to
Vamp

If that's the one I'm thinking of, it's quite tall for its length, isn't it? Basically it's too short and sidewinds are going to heave it around a bit. I wouldn't think there would be a lot you could do with it.

I've found the same thing on Transits - the SWB gets blown around, whereas the LWB doesn't suffer to the same extent in spite of the extra side panelling.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Roasted.

Reply to
DervMan

crosswinds.

It's one that I agree with. If you do regular motorway trips, then you'd have to be a complete LOON to buy a Smart car ! It's small, underpowered, is heavily affected by crosswinds, and your chances of survival in a high-speed crash, are zero.

Rubbish. My 620 TI is a sensible car for motorway trips, as was my previous

405. A miniature under-powered city-car, is NOT sensible for motorway trips.

What does that have to do with motorway suitability ?

Reply to
Nom

ROFL :)

Reply to
Nom

Okay, we're at cross purposes here.

But we were discussing sensible cars, not sensible motorway cars?

Everything if it's one person in the car.

Of course, I agree in part with what you're saying - you'd be better off with something rather wider than the Smart /cough Ka cough/ if you wanted something small for motorway work. But the Smart isn't any worse than the Suzuki Wagon-R / Vauxhall (whatever-they-called-their-rebadged-version) on the motorway!

Reply to
DervMan

LOL - the Suzuki Wagon-R is a steaming pile of arse, of the highest order ! It's uinsuitable for ANYTHING - never mind motorway trips :)

Oh, and Lordy's parents own one :D

Reply to
Nom

The Police in Totton (where i'm moving at the weekend) have them. tee he he

So thats where he gets his bad taste in cars from ;)

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Nah, it's a Hyundai AtoZ. Not that that's much better, heh.

Reply to
Lordy

Its an Agila, and surely no one with a grain of sense/sanity would choose any of these cars, including the Ka, for much motorway work? What happens when you're doing 70 and for some reason you need to speed up to 80? It takes long enough in my car, in a Ka is would be timable on a calendar...

-- Dan

Reply to
Dan405

We *really* need to have this meet!

Ford Fair this weekend; hoping to take the lad onto the track! - if you're up for it . . . :)

Reply to
DervMan

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