A skidpad is a circular area of flat pavement used for various tests of a

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

's handling. The most common skidpad use is testing lateral

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...

, measured in

meters per second squared The metre per second squared is the Units of measurement, unit of acceleration in the International System of Units (SI). As a SI derived unit, derived unit, it is composed from the SI base units of length, the metre, and time, the second. Its sy ...

(m/s²) or the scaled unit ''g''-force. This usage has similarities to that of using a kick plate.

Measurement of grip

A car’s maximum number of ''g''-forces on a skid pad says something about the grip of the car on winding roads, or how fast it can drive in corners without losing grip. Some factors which can aid in achieving higher ''g''-forces are high power, wide

tire A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...

s, low

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

, appropriate suspension setup and large

downforce Downforce is a downwards lift force created by the aerodynamic features of a vehicle. If the vehicle is a car, the purpose of downforce is to allow the car to travel faster by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip ...

Test setup

The test is carried out on a circular track with a defined

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

. A car driving on said track is slowly accelerated, until the outermost tires on the car begin to slip. Going any faster would cause the car to drive outside the defined radius. At this point, the speed of the car is recorded, and given the centripetal acceleration formula (by the formula ''v''²/''r'', that is velocity squared divided by radius) the car’s handling in terms of the maximum of lateral ''g''s can be derived.

Other uses

A new

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizati ...

was accomplished in November 2020, when the

Porsche Taycan The Porsche Taycan is a battery electric saloon and shooting brake produced by German automobile manufacturer Porsche. The concept version of the Taycan, named the ''Porsche Mission E'', debuted at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Taycan wa ...

set the ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' best mark for longest electric vehicle drift on the skidpad (measured in time). The car stayed sideways for in 55 minutes.

References

{{AutomotiveHandlingNav Automotive safety

Measurement of grip

Test setup

Other uses

See also

References