How fast do you have to go in order to flip the car?

[kl31]

Today, while a friend and i were exiting the parking lot of the mall, i decided to have a little fun by making a sharp turn at around 25-30mph. The parking lot was empty, so it was relatively safe. It got me to thinking, how fast do you have to go in a delorean in order to flip the car?

[Michael]

How bad do you want to find out?

You are asking a very open ended question that involves a lot of factors...namely road surface and angle. Are you on dirt, ice, dry tarmac, negative camber, positive camber? What kind of tires do you have? What suspension? What ride height? blah blah blah.

If you are worried abiut it then you are driving way too fast to begin with.

[Rich_NYS]

The car is so low & wide, I think it would be really difficult to flip....I'd guess a much higher speed than you can get in a parking lot.

Any physics guys here?

[Delorean Industries]

I came into turn 13 at Nelson ledges last year a shade over 90 with heat soaked brakes. IE I was already braking heavily prior and pushed for the apex trying to recover due to not scrubbing enough speed. I was bouncing the wheel off the lock but it was a pointless effort as the front becomes very light once mechanical grip fails. (the back is so heavy that it digs in and the front comes up) The contact was so poor that I could effortlessly move the steering wheel. At no point was the car going to roll and tumble. Instead the back consistently comes around every time. Over all the cars center of gravity is very low and extremely wide.

I know of at least one other purpose driven experiment and that was Uding at a Houston track day. I believe he had results very close to this as well.

[vwdmc16]

This has also been a interesting question I had, Ive never felt like my car would flip, only spin in a hard turn.

Side note, Anyone have pictures of rolled Delorean? Ive seen plenty of crashed but never ones that were on thier lid.

[Nicholas R]

This has also been a interesting question I had, Ive never felt like my car would flip, only spin in a hard turn.

Side note, Anyone have pictures of rolled Delorean? Ive seen plenty of crashed but never ones that were on thier lid.

I can't remember where they are but they're out there. There is one specific famous rolled car.

[DeLorean03]

Bottom of page 3:

http://www.entermyworld.com/gallery/very-sad-dmc?pg=3

[DMCMW Dave]

I can't remember where they are but they're out there. There is one specific famous rolled car.

Yeah - I scrapped it probably 10 years ago. It want off an interstate into the grass and dug in at the front corner. I think that's about the only way to flip this car, you have to hit something going sideways.

http://dmcnews.com/Techsection/rollover.html Ignore the part about the TABS, that was not the cause. It was raining and he tagged/was tagged by a truck.

[Jonathan]

I think that's about the only way to flip this car, you have to hit something going sideways.

Or mess with Keyser Soze... lol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rntm3yDAQuM

Sorry if this was meant to be a serious question/thread... Michael nailed it when he said "if you're driving so fast that this is a concern, then you're driving too fast!" :)

[David T]

Yeah - I scrapped it probably 10 years ago. It want off an interstate into the grass and dug in at the front corner. I think that's about the only way to flip this car, you have to hit something going sideways.

http://dmcnews.com/Techsection/rollover.html Ignore the part about the TABS, that was not the cause. It was raining and he tagged/was tagged by a truck.

With all of the accumulated miles and history there are very few instances of rollover. There was some concern about it because we have a roll-over valve in the fuel system but IMHO that was done very early on for an abundance of caution. I think fire would be the bigger worry. Especially now because of all of the aging parts and not every mechanic knows what they are doing and most cars have had many hands on them by now. Don't forget the Lucas electrical system! We all know how rugged and reliable that is! And how common it is to melt the fuseblock.

[Rich]

Today, while a friend and i were exiting the parking lot of the mall, i decided to have a little fun by making a sharp turn at around 25-30mph. The parking lot was empty, so it was relatively safe. It got me to thinking, how fast do you have to go in a delorean in order to flip the car?

Back to the question. How fast does a D need to be going in order for it to flip/roll over? We can assume you mean on flat pavement without obstacles, like on a freeway, a parking lot or a track.

It's not a matter of speed in a D or in any other car for that matter. On flat pavement all cars will turn, then skid if you turn them hard enough while going fast enough. They won't flip.

Two points to back that up:
1. All of the car mags that run handling tests take the cars as fast as they will go at a fixed radius on pavement. The cars do not flip. They slip and skid if they exceed the handling limit.
2. In order to make cars flip for movies it takes a significant ramp or pryo charge with a floor-mounted jacking arrangement to initiate a flip or a roll.

At least one exception to this: The much-maligned Suzuki Samurai. Consumer Reports managed to get it up on two wheels in a severe handling test with some swerves to initiate it. First time they had ever managed it.

Things are much different if the car goes up or down an embankment, of course, as noted by others. Cars and trucks CAN flip. But they cannot flip just because they are turned at too high a speed on a flat road. When they go OFF the road, even at pretty normal speeds, the story can be horrible.

[vwdmc16]

I recall The Isuzu Amigo also nearly flipped during a consumer report like report.

[Flicky]

You can get several older SUVs to flip by doing stupid things. Modern ones have traction control that should prevent you from taking stupid things too far. I've never got any of my "sporty" cars to come close. Worst time was in a C4s in the rain with bald tires. Someone dropped a bunch of farm equipment on the highway and I figured I could work a 80mph slalom. I kept it on the road for about a 1/4 mile then a tire hit the dirt and it pulled it sideways. Jumped my car about 30feet over a drainage culvert...then through a barbed wire fence...then into a field of angry cows. I drove it another 250miles after that to get home.

I would bet that if you haven't done something like hit a curb or fell off a cliff, you will always get the rear end of a D to spin before any tire could grip the loaded side enough to lever into a flip.

Maybe some math:
- Use 3000lbs for the weight
- 1/2 the width of the car is ~36.5 inches
- the distance from the ground to the center of the hub is about 13 inches (guessing).
- I have no idea where the center of gravity is on it...lets say 35 inches...I think that gives us 19 degree of lever angle.

Now, we also need to replace the springs with steel tubes and the wheels are steel disks glued to the road.

So, to flip it you need to generate an initial 116,954 "foot-pounds" of torque (I think) dynamically reducing over enough time to get to the tipping point...this is too much math for me, and I'm probably doing it wrong.

This video shows how hitting a curb can help brace the wheels for a flip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB-KBaevPqM

[Rich_NYS]

If you're completely badass, you could flip it at 0 MPH (while it's parked.)

I doubt I can do it by myself, but probably could if I had help from one or two friends. :biggrin:

[ssdelorean]

It want off an interstate into the grass and dug in at the front corner. I think that's about the only way to flip this car, you have to hit something going sideways.


That or an untimely pot hole while sliding!

A few years back a fellow DCOer got the passenger have of his car airborne. Coming up over a hill all the traffic was slow or stopping. Hit brakes & swerved, spun got air, hit concrete barrier, spun again hit concrete barrier again. Doors opened fine. Passengers OK, car fixed a few months later and back on the road.

[TTait]

You could just park one at the Corvette museum and wait...

[Rich]

If the question was "How fast do you need to go in a rare gullwing 2-seat sports car to flip it?" then the answer from Germany as of 1 year ago is ">50MPH and then onto a roadside embankment".

Check the grass stains on top of the sad-looking roof proving that this car went wheels-skyward at some point in the adventure:

LINK to story and better photo: http://www.gtspirit.com/2013/03/28/car-crash-mercedes-300-sl-gullwing-wrecked-in-germany/ (http://www.gtspirit.com/2013/03/28/car-crash-mercedes-300-sl-gullwing-wrecked-in-germany/)

26680 26682

As noted earlier it normally takes some kind of ramp or dropoff, as seen next to the road in second photo, to initiate the flip or roll phenomenon.

[PB Co]

I had this photo saved from a thread about dent repair.

26683
A rolled DeLorean, but I do not know the circumstances.

[DMCMW Dave]

I had this photo saved from a thread about dent repair.

26683
A rolled DeLorean, but I do not know the circumstances.

Post #10 above?

[PB Co]

There ya go that's the one, made one complete circle on the forums. Missed that link though, sorry bout that.

[Rich_NYS]

If I bring my car to DCS, I might take it to the drag strip & flip it end-over-end while cranking Motley Crue's first album..........who wants to ride shotgun?

:rock_on: