|
From YourSITE.com Auto Shows
A Hurricane tore through the Detroit auto show in early January, taking thousands of people by surprise and rendering all (except those taking pictures of it) quite motionless. Luckily, no one present was injured.
This patented (pending) Hurricane was first heard coming to life behind Chrysler’s stage in the middle of their concept car press conference, just after CEO Dieter Zetsche had finished talking about how the Chrysler group had introduced two surprise super-powered concepts in the last two years, to add some of his final comments to his discussion of childhood toys becoming reality. A roar came suddenly from backstage, then settled to an idol grumble; then a separate roar rose up, and the Hurricane burst onto the stage, running a very controlled but violently fast spin. It was stunning.
It was the Jeep Hurricane concept. Dodge had its Viper-powered 4-wheel motorcycle-ish Tomahawk concept in 2003, and in 2004 the Chrysler brand had its ME412 850hp supercar concept, which Chrysler tested to a sub-3 second 0-60 time later that year. So it was Jeep’s turn at a knockout vehicle.
670 hp and 740 lb-ft of torque is certainly enough to be considered supercar, and this placed the Hurricane nicely in between the two other super Chrysler concepts of the two previous years. When the first roar came and subsided, then another roar came, it seemed the concept had stalled before it even got onstage – a pretty poor showcase of a large company’s engineering talent. In reality, the two separate roars came from two separate 5.7-liter HEMI V8’s - one mounted up front, the other in back. That’s wicked; but it gets better.
The rapid spin performed onstage was a display of three patent-pending technologies contained within the Hurricane – all working together in perfect harmony. The first, called “zero steer,” is a toe-ing in of all four wheels, such that all four fit on a single circle drawn about the Jeep’s geometric center. This results in a turn of zero radius, a rather amazing accomplishment. According to Doug Quigley (“the brains of this operation [this year’s concept cars]” according to his boss) the “zero steer” function is “very stable in execution it exhibits no deviance from the path, it just keeps tracing over same circle.” So although he executed the spin rather quickly (actually, Quigley said he barely got into the throttle), there was never even remote danger of him taking out any unsuspecting media personnel sitting just twenty feet away. Quigley said that zero steer was so stable that “we tested it on a hill and it still didn’t deviate from its intended path.” So it sounds safe. Yet with the power of two HEMI engines obeying the whim of the driver’s right foot, and the fact that the Hurricane has so little rotational inertia in zero steer mode, Doug says you could execute a spin in the Hurricane fast enough to throw the occupants out. Dangerous, but cool.
And it is just one of five different steering modes. The next mode, called skid steer, is essential to the execution of a zero radius turn. Skid steer allows the Hurricane to act like a tank, in that its left wheels turn clockwise, and its right wheels counterclockwise (when viewed from the right of the vehicle). Actually, without the Hurricane operating in skid steer, the zero steer mode would yield no change in position…the Hurricane would just stand there while its left and right wheels fought against each other, or something broke. When the Hurricane is in pure skid steer, without the wheels toed in, it also spins about its geometric center, but with slightly less accuracy, a bit of tire smoke, and perhaps just a bit more danger. Doug said that skid steer really was quite stable – only on a slope did he notice a deviation from the intended path, which was due to the skidding of the tires as the Hurricane executes a zero radius turn while the wheels are directed on tangents not consistent with the path of the circle…thus the name “skid steer.” But, still, we’re talking about a couple of inches in deviation, and Doug had enough confidence in the stability of the vehicle under skid steer on a flat surface that he wanted to demonstrate it, live, within the limited confines of the press conference stage. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as his boss shut that idea down. But skid steer looked really wild on video.
And the list goes on – there is still one more patent and three more steering modes to discuss. The next coolest steering mode is crab steer, in which all four wheels are turned to the same direction, so that the car shifts itself…kinda like a crab. Does this seem a tad redundant on a vehicle equipped with zero steer? It isn’t.
Let us expand on the purpose of this vehicle, to give you the proper perspective with which to view these functions. The Hurricane is intended to show that Jeep can build that off-roader you may have dreamed about when you were a kid, the one that could run over Hummers and their yuppie owners, climb any mountain, send sand flying everywhere on the beach, and tackle any obstacle the Rubicon trail could throw at you. So, let’s say you’re off-roading, and you come off a boulder and land with another boulder right in front of you, and another just a couple of inches to your side. With that boulder at your side, you can’t do a zero steer turn because your vehicle’s right rear corner will clip it – picture trying to rotate your desk while it is right up against a wall…how do you move your desk?
You have to get it away from the wall first – you shift it. With crab steer, you can’t pull your Hurricane away from the wall perpendicularly, but you might be able to get around that boulder in front of you if there’s a path open at 45 degrees to your front. As for asphalt functionality, this could also signal the end of parallel parking troubles as you crab-walk your ride into place. How cool would that be? You could have all the attention of all the gawking kids and engi-nerds you could ever want…or not.
The next mode is nothing new – a four-wheel steer, which allows the Hurricane to translate in a normal way, but just with a tighter than normal steering radius. Ok, now this has to be redundant, right? Well, no. Still, there might be a time when the only way out between a rock and…um…another hard rock type thing (what was that saying again?…) is to draw just the right line in between obstacles – a line that might not allow you to rotate or shift your car or even steer through with just the front wheels. That line might require the turning radius supplied by all four wheels working together. You just never know when four-wheel steer might come in handy (do I sound like your mother yet? Good. That way, you feel like a kid, and you’re in the right mindset to appreciate how much fun this car could be).
Ok. That’s four out of five steering modes. And we saved the best for last. Ready? (Drum roll…) It’s normal steer! This exciting function allows you to move the car with just the front two wheels steering! This way, the rear wheels only have to help propel the vehicle. Wow!
Ok, so it’s not as exciting as all the rest. But even Spiderman needs to spend some time being regular old Peter Parker; it gets tiring being a superhero all the time. Plus, your Mary Jane might not be too excited about off-roading functions, so you gotta drive like a normal human sometimes.
So that’s all the excitement except for that last patent. The one magic box that brings it all together. As Doug explains, “this is in essence the one thing that delivers power to all four wheels while allowing you to run either or both engines and handle a speed differential between the wheels.” It’s an all wheel drive management module plus dual engine manager in one. It allows great capability and flexibility – as Doug further illustrated, “I could literally be running down the street with one engine on, then start up the other one and turn the first one off and turn the first one on again, all without stopping.” From that central box, the torque is transfered to another management system, one per axle, which controls power distribution in both magnitude and direction to each of the wheels. That’s some seriously impressive engineering.
And that impressive engineering makes this car all the more realistic. This could be built, it is fairly ready to go. Doug did say that they wouldn’t do the Hurricane the same if they did it again - they even over-designed some parts for safety reasons - but this is a fully functional concept.
This functionality is immediately visible in the 35 inch tall tires that are mounted on 20” wheels. The body and chassis are all one single unit, constructed out of a carbon fiber-aluminum honeycomb sandwich. The whole body/chassis unit is visible, and is not accompanied by a single subframe; everything bolts directly onto the chassis. If the Hurricane or a similar vehicle were to be built, this body/chassis unit shows the form of what a traditional metal chassis would look like.
Underneath, 14.3 inches of ground clearance provide a clear enough view of the other side that you could tell whether or not Dieter - as he stands smiling behind the Hurricane - wore shorts to the press conference…and perhaps that ground clearance might even help you run over any scattered logs or short boulders in your path.
Up top, a massive piece of Aluminum ties into the carbon fiber-skinned windshield frame and cockpit rear to act as both a roll bar and a torsional rigidity enhancer. Without it, you wouldn’t wanna test the capabilities of this vehicle – and the Hurricane would be a flex machine.
Big skidplates front and rear make the Hurricane look ready for a real off-road roller coaster ride, and the geometry of the overhangs combined with ride height yield ridiculous approach/departure angles of 64.0/86.7 degrees. You got a tough obstacle course that could even challenge Spiderman’s dexterity? The Hurricane says bring it on. Wanna go off some cool jumps and see if you can fly like Superman? The Hurricane has 20 inches of suspension travel during which it can dissipate all that energy, in the unlikely event you have to land, so go for it. Want the power of the Hulk? Perhaps 740 pounds-feet of torque can satisfy your urge to push and pull.
Wanna see if the Hurricane can create a twister strong enough to lift up the entirety of your local trailer park and send it off to Munchkin land? Slip that steer mode selector into the slot next to “Zero Steer” and let ‘er rip. Want attention? Get one of these! So when do we get to buy one? Not gonna happen…at least not in this form. Out of the three Chrysler super concepts in the last three years, we have heard nothing official on production plans. But the technology in this car, now that should be for real. Maybe the two-engined bit is excessive, but the steering functions are truly usable off-road, as long as they pass sufficient endurance tests. And of course you absolutely need the zero steer function on your Chrysler 300C; no tricked out 300 – even with a mock-Bentley grill and hydraulics - would be complete without it.
Doug Quigley, an engineer who graduated from the And it is proof that these guys know how to have fun. Now, Dieter, where are the keys? I wanna be Superman, too. I’ve even got a cape.
© Copyright 2001 by YourSITE.com |
