Car stunt question - NB obviously

[Shakey]

Was driving home on M1 tonight, bit bored, and was wondering about that car stunt where they drive a car up a ramp onto a moving lorry.

I was thinking I wouldn't mind having a go at that, but the more I thought about it the harder it seems.

Suppose the lorry is doing 60mph. You approach it at 60.2 mph or whatever, and then you gently drive up the ramp onboard the lorry.

But, the relative speeds are all important. You might be doing 0.2 mph faster than the lorry as you hit the ramp, but as soon as the car's drive wheels hit the ramp the lorry is in effect stationary, as it becomes your new 'road'.

Therefore, you instantaneously accelerate from 0.2 mph to 60.2 mph relatively speaking and launch yourself off the lorry and into mid air, to be flattened by said lorry three seconds later.

Is this right or have I got the physics wrong? Is it all about clutch control or summat?

<hr width=100% size=1>It could have been worse - it could have been me.

 

[alruss]

correct thinking, not possible @ 60 to stop before flight, try 30 mph should be possible.
Rather your car than mine.

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[andy_wilson]

Flawed logic

It doesn't matter what speed you are doing, you will not have the traction or power to catapult you from 0.2 mph (relative) to 60mph, and thus up and over the ramp, using your technique.

Once the driving wheels 'touch down', they will skid, raising the question of control, and the new load will rapidly overcome both the power of the engine and the inertia of the rotating engine plus transmission.

Unless you are screaming the nuts off in third, a stall is the most likely outcome, depositing you back on the road.

Far better to approach at say 15 to 20 mph faster than the target and dip the clutch and brake as you hit the ramp.

Try it, you'll see!!!!!!!

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[AndCur]

Try watching the Italian Job!

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[ccscott49]

Not as difficult as you think, did it once, for an army demo, but we were rear wheel drive, thats much easier. The italian job did it with minis, now that is clever!

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[PaulS]

I would think the idea would be to use a manual shift. Accelerate to the same speed as the truck plus whatever it would normaly take to drive up the ramp if it were stationary. step on the clutch just before hitting the bottom of the ramp, so that the car is actually free-wheeling, and coast up. Shouldn't be going more than a couple of miles per hour, relative to the truck, by the time you're up the ramp.

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