I managed to catch Nissan's zoomy Land Glider showcar -- and let's face it, you gotta have a zoomy showcar at the Tokyo show -- showing off for the crowd. It leans, you see, but it's all an act.
Motorcycles lean into turns because of physics. Cars like this one only lean into turns because they have complicated mechanisms that force them into position.
Click the jump to see what I mean.
Note that this car leans in the absence of forward or backward motion. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it makes me wonder what the point is.
It is pretty funky, though, as it's a tandem two-seat EV. Nissan gave us a sneak peek at the Land Glider yesterday. In a nutshell, it's intended as an urban runabout, specifically for parking-impacted Tokyo, where it's narrow enough to share a parking spot with a motorcycle.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor
cwc1 says:
05:46 PM, 10/21/09
I don't see what the point is of this thing leaning into turns either. The weight of the machinery to do this must add some extra weight and complexity, so what is being achieved by it? Sounds like a marketing gee-whiz, wow, that's cool sort of thing.