Seen many videos of fast cars (mustangs especially lol) accelerating in a straight line and then losing control and going into the curb/crowd. What would cause it to do that when the wheels are just pointed straight ahead?
How does one prevent or control this?
In: Engineering
Roads are rarely even. The surface roughness varies from spot to spot. While it looks level, there may be a slight camber (side slope) and unevenness – some spots higher or lower than others. While it “looks” straight and even, to a tire and a car, it isn’t. Even a good driver cannot hold a steering wheel absolutely rigid and there is always mechanical variations in the steering, suspension and tire surfaces. When a car is trying to accelerate rapidly and/or has achieved fast speeds, these small variations can cause rather great effects. At 30 km/h, these are rarely problematic but at 300km/h small variations (even in things like wind direction or speed) can cause a car to go unstable.
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