Doing the loop the loop

[RCoasterny]

We've done loops on a roller coaster and some flat rides (Larson's Ring of Fire comes to mind), but has one done it with a regular car, Hot Wheels style?

 

Fifth Gear tries out that theory- see if they did it or failed!

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

Pretty cool to me...

[jarmor]

Now THIS needs to be added to radiar springs cars ride!

[picknyourseat]

OK...now that is pretty cool !

[Loefet]

It doesn't look like they have herd of a Clothoid loop to keep the forces down, that is used on coasters...

 

 

Cool non the less.

[themeparkman25]

Do you think in America it would have flipped to the left? hahaha

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^True, they could have used it, but I don't think a smartcar would have generated enough centripital force to make it through a clothoid.

[TYTL]

Time to install one on a real track!

 

Just Kidding, though it would be spectacular!

[BaMiTsPaT]

That's really cool!

[chemical_echo]

And the dawn of Speed Racer style racing and race tracks begins.

[ratdogg68]

That was too cool, I would try it. Imagine driving through that, what a rush.

[VegasCoaster]

I've always wanted them to have a heartline roll on F1 tracks since the cars generate enough down force they could drive upside down. Only problem is if you aren't at speed it doesn't tend to work so well. Cool trick, seems like a knock off show of Top Gear though.

[Mastersax68]

If only they had tried some other inversions as well...

[thrillgeek]

That was timed so perfect!! Other inversions would surly fail though.

[cycamps]

That was awesome. It made me smile when he actually did it...

[X-L-R-8]

That's just an epic win to the 3rd power....

[Sasquatch]

I've always wanted them to have a heartline roll on F1 tracks since the cars generate enough down force they could drive upside down. Only problem is if you aren't at speed it doesn't tend to work so well. Cool trick, seems like a knock off show of Top Gear though.

 

But in heartline rolls, you experience alot of negative Gs...

[VegasCoaster]

If the car is actively being held to the track it shouldn't matter, and I'm thinking more of the Intamin 10 inversion roller coaster kind of heartline roll, not a zero-g roll like on a B&M.

[andyuk200523]

The reason this was a circle loop and not a Clothoid loop is that during a normal coaster clothoid style loop you experience a small amount of weightlessness at the peak of the loop, if this happened whilst driving a car round a loop, the car would fall.

 

By keeping the loop perfectly circular, the g's are kept high, thus centriple force works correctly!

 

This was filmed about 5 miles from my home, I drove past a day or 2 after filming and saw the loop, interesting piece of tv though.

 

btw. 5th Gear is just an alternative to Top Gear, totally different channel, but agreed, definatly not in the same class as Top Gear.

[hyyyper]

The reason this was a circle loop and not a Clothoid loop is that during a normal coaster clothoid style loop you experience a small amount of weightlessness at the peak of the loop, if this happened whilst driving a car round a loop, the car would fall.

 

By keeping the loop perfectly circular, the g's are kept high, thus centriple force works correctly!

 

 

Not true, even clothoid loops can have a force of +1 G at the top. The only meaning that clothoid has is that the radius goes from large to small and back to large. It has nothing to do with the amout of G's.

 

For example, if you build a 200ft drop into a 50th clothoid loop, you can image there will be no weightlessness.