Turning Radius and Speed of the Car
Turning your moving car at a certain angle with respect to the ground is a necessary part of driving. Turning your car while driving depends on certain technical aspects like speed of the car, radius of the turn, the traction between ground and tyres, type of road you are driving on and even to the condition of the tyres.
Fig 1. Turning angle
There is always a direct link and relationship between the turning of a car and its speed at time of making a turn. You can easily make a turn at high speed of 90Kms or even more if the turn is very gentle and the traction between the road and tyre is strong. But on the same hand it is very difficult to make a possible tighter turn on road during snow or rain at even moderate speed. The turning of car depends on other important factor of road type and condition, it is very difficult to make a tight turn on cemented road due to its slippery nature rather than on Asphalt road which offer greater grip to the vehicle.
Fig 2. Turn vs Risk Factor
Calculating Turning Radius of Your Car
It is quite easy to calculate the turning radius of car at the lowest speed. This might be important for a driver to get to know about his car in detail, so that the next time he need to take a light or a tight turn he will be knowing the estimated calculation and thus will make a god and safe turn. To know about the turning radius of your car in most suitable environment you must follow certain steps.
- Take your car to the open ground in order to be safe.
- Now mark the start point at the rear tyre of your car.
- Turn on the engine and move the car ahead in the slowest possible speed that will not introduce stalling to the movement.
- Turn your steering wheel to maximum right or left and continue moving.
- Continue the turning of car till the car comes at the parallel position to your starting point either from the left or right side.
- Now get down from your car and make a straight line mark from the two position obtained by car’s rear tyre at start and stop of the car.
- Now divide the length of the straight line by 2.
- This will give you the turning radius of the car.
Fig 3. Turning Radius Calculation
Although this method might not be 100% correct and accurate but still it would give you a rough estimation of your car’s turning radius.
For turning your car at a tighter turn it is always advisable to lower the speed of your car before making a turn. This will give a greater grip and thus more traction between the tyre and ground. Further you must get good set of tyres if you are frequent rider on road or highway. Turning at high speed on snowy and wet road could be a real danger for both driver and passengers thus driving and turning on these kind of roads should be done with more precision and safely.