Wheelbase to Track Ratio

[cibachrome]

thread60-368788

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, we come up with this:
The wheelbase to track statistics (N~ 2000) show that this ranges from about 1.7 to 1.9 (mm / mm). Just in case you were dying to know....

 

[BrianPetersen]

My daily driver has a wheelbase to track width ratio which is below the bottom of that scale (just over 1.4) and it's a car for which about 1.4 million have been built over two generations, the third generation has just started, and that third generation has that ratio even smaller thanks to a wider track width than mine ...

I can think of a few other cars that have also been built in quantities of millions and with that ratio near 1.5 (namely, the original Fiat 500 and its successor, Fiat 126, and I'm sure there are others), so I question the completeness of that chart.

But in general ... given the typical dimensions of your normal average family car, it's not surprising that the majority are clustered near 1.7 to 1.9.

I wouldn't take that as being an "optimum" for handling or ride quality or any such thing, it's just that if you sit two (or three) people side by side you're going to end up with a vehicle in a certain width range, and if you sit two rows of people one behind the other and put a set of wheels in front of them and a set behind, you're going to end up with a vehicle having a certain wheelbase range. It's just how it works out.

 

[GregLocock]

I think a scatterplot of wheelbase and track would make things clearer

Cheers

Greg Locock


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