PORSCHE Improved Steering Technology
There is so much technology that goes into keeping a Porsche on the road today that it is staggering. The early Porsche models were able to win in the Targa Florio in large part because the vehicles simply handled better. Handling was improved thanks to an increase in range of motion in the steering wheel through new technology. As well as improving the range of motion, the ease of turning the wheel has also been improved through technological advances.
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These steering improvements make passenger Porsches much safer to drive because the driver is able to react to emergency situations more efficiently. If there is a sharp corner that was unexpected the driver should be able to make the turn without repositioning the hands in most instances.
By making the wheel easier to turn and more responsive it also reduces driver fatigue over longer trips which means that you won’t have to worry about making mistakes because you are too tired. Often when drivers become tired they take a more relaxed hand position on the wheel and aren’t able to keep control of the vehicle as effectively any longer making them useless to respond in a serious situation.
All of these advances came from the desire to win long distances races in France and Italy and they have affected all the passenger vehicles created by Porsche substantially.
Regenerative Flywheel
During some of the latest endurance challenges that Porsche
has entered they developed a new flywheel regenerative braking technology.
Since the cars are traveling exceptionally fast in the race using standard
batteries wouldn’t have been an efficient method for storing power created by
regenerative braking. Instead a flywheel technology was created to harness all
of the power created through regenerative braking the powerful sports car and
then immediately converted into energy that the car could utilize for additional
boosts of speed.
This technology is not used in passenger vehicles yet, and
probably won’t become popular in most mainstream vehicles, but it should
improve efficiency and safety for larger vehicles such as garbage trucks that
have to start and stop several different times a day.
Porsche has a long and colorful history with different endurance races. They have participated and won in many of the largest long-distance races in the world such as the deadly Targa Florio, and the 24 Hours of Le Man in France. Porsche had to think radically about how to use new materials, and how to improve their vehicles to give drivers an advantage in these extended races.
Lighter Materials
Sports cars, and vehicles in general are continually focusing on ways to become more lightweight. New materials are developed all the time to decrease the weight of vehicles, and most of the time these materials are developed for races such as the Targa Florio and the 24 Hours Le Man in France. During these endurance races the lighter your vehicle is the longer you can keep driving without worrying about fuel. Many aluminum alloys and carbon fiber parts have been developed for these type of races, and they are always engineered to be extremely safe.
With the increased demand to make more fuel efficient vehicles, manufacturers have been working to make cars lighter, and Porsche doesn’t have a problem doing that in a safe manner thanks to all of the engineering tests that they have performed on prototypes entered into these endurance races.
