Futuri Project is an automotive project that aims at building innovative vehicles with newly-designed mechanical and technological features. Futuri Project has been trying to guarantee the highest performance levels for the last thirty years, making sure to keep up with a steady trend of development to meet the modern needs of Gran Turismo, sports cars and racing.
This enduring effort has led to the idea of working on a new kind of wheel balancing and steering system: these will operate directly on the vehicle barycenter through a central axle oriented by two guiding wheels at the front and back of the longitudinal center axle.
Such a radical solution has made it possible to almost fully eliminate the factors that have limited the performances of a traditional four-wheel vehicle. As a matter of fact, when the vehicle is in motion the two guiding wheels will work in perfect trajectory with the barycenter, allowing a smooth and steady movement forward and the greatest amount of speed through the bend, eliminating the slip angle and understeer and oversteer dynamics. This way the vehicle will benefit from a direct and parallel force on the trajectory axle unlike traditional vehicles, where the two front guiding wheels actually lead the movement of the rear axle in different trajectories while taking a curve, generating lateral acceleration effects.
The hard work of Futuri project has led to great results. During the construction phases radio-controlled models have been created and tested so to allow mechanical and dynamic tests. These tests have yielded interesting results in terms of vehicle acceleration, lateral acceleration, braking and aerodynamics.
Lateral Acceleration
As described above the vehicle of Futuri Project strongly reduces lateral acceleration impact thanks to a direct and parallel force on the trajectory axle. In particular, lateral acceleration is highly reduced because the vehicle always proceeds on external backing on three wheels while bending; this way three holding points for acceleration take place, a central one on the outer edge on axle with the barycenter, and two more on the longitudinal center far end which goes through the barycenter. These features allow a lateral setup that enables a balanced and compact bending radius. Another crucial feature for lateral acceleration reduction is the stepsize and the juxtaposed synchronism of the two guiding wheels with a steering and stabilizing effect. These features free the vehicle from thrusts and frictions, and make it increasingly powerful during steering and trajectory fixes, both when accelerating and decelerating, improving fluidity and speed when the vehicle gets in and out of turns.
Acceleration and Braking
The vehicle of Futuri Project speeds up through a well-balanced driving force on all four wheels: two differentials are mounted, one on the transverse central axle, the other one between the transverse central and the longitudinal center axle working on the guiding wheels.
Because the guiding wheels exert a driving and guiding force they can orient all thrusts during the acceleration and braking phases, giving directional stability thanks to the juxtaposed synchronized steering system and the stepsize. A determining factor for high performance is the conformation of the rear balance: having an only steering wheel at the farthest back end, sided with two advanced lateral wheels on the central axle, allows the vehicle to release high forces on the ground while accelerating and taking a curve, highly reducing the risk of wobbling and sliding.
Test results have shown that the accelerating and braking functions undergo a well- balanced and compact translative force while the vehicle speeds up and brakes; the rear and front stressed areas of the vehicle share the same mechanical and technical features. This way weight transfer is spread across the three longitudinal and the three tranversal axles, of which the central axles go through the barycenter. This ensures that any straining force exerted on any external front will be backed by three wheels, unlike any traditional vehicle with two wheels only. The advantage is wider contact surface and higher grip.
Aerodynamics
Due to its particular technical and mechanical features, the vehicle of Futuri Project allows more enhanced aerodynamic shapes and profiles which are not possible for a traditional vehicle. These unique features guarantee a stronger aerodynamic penetration, a well-balanced load distribution and release flows as well as a remarkable reduction of air resistance when in motion.
