Driving on three wheels

This is the place for posts that don't fit into any other category.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
bxbodger
Posts: 1455
Joined: 23 May 2003, 03:34
Location: Lovejoy country (Essex!!)
My Cars:
x 1

Driving on three wheels

Post by bxbodger »

No, I don't mean Morgans, Bonds, Reliants, Scott sociables, and other odd cycle-cars, I mean hydraulic Citroens.
Idly watching "Chips" on Bravo the other day, the dynamic duo pulled over a DS for driving with only three wheels fitted- is this possible? God knows what it had to do with the plot but it was most entertaining, and I am sure there was some film of it being done on a Citroen special on "men and motors" channel, and, no, I wasn't waiting for the soft p**n to start!
I know from experience that you can have a tyre blow out and still stop in a straight line with no drama as the hydraulics compensate, but a wheel completely missing?
Has anyone tried this- I haven't had the nerve!!!!!
tomsheppard
Posts: 1801
Joined: 19 Dec 2002, 14:46
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by tomsheppard »

Yes! You can. It is one of the things that make Citroens special. BTW, does anybody have recordings of the gsa adverts? The best car commercials Full Stop
User avatar
uhn113x
Posts: 1161
Joined: 06 Jan 2004, 22:06
Location: Near Leeds, United Kingdom
My Cars: 1981 Dyane - on road all year round.
1982 GSA Pallas - on road April - September.
1997 ZX 1.9D Dimension.
x 1

Post by uhn113x »

You can also totally shred a rear tyre on a DS before the slight noise tells you that you have a puncture [:(]
No prizes for guessing how I know that!
Charles deGaulle reputedly travelled several km in his DS after an assassination attempt shot two tyres out.
tomsheppard
Posts: 1801
Joined: 19 Dec 2002, 14:46
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by tomsheppard »

Yep, those Deesses aren't easy to assassinate.
bxbodger
Posts: 1455
Joined: 23 May 2003, 03:34
Location: Lovejoy country (Essex!!)
My Cars:
x 1

Post by bxbodger »

But has anyone actually tried it and can confirm that its possible, because surely it defies the laws of physics!
If you take a leg off your kitchen table it will fall over, as no doubt my BX will if I remove a wheel- when a tyre goes you still have contact with the ground, even though the tyre can be shredded and not exactly round any more, and the arm/strut will go up and down to compensate.
I wonder if the DS on chips had a hell of a lot of ballast added to the opposite corner,and self-levelling would just make it <u>appear</u>to be unloaded in which case it would drive on 3 wheels, and the corner with no wheel was definately not in contact with the road.
After all, if I take my table leg off after putting an engine block on the opposite corner then the table will still stand.....
Stuart McB
Posts: 1635
Joined: 03 Oct 2003, 00:50
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
x 1

Post by Stuart McB »

Saw it done on the TV only a month or so ago. A celebration of the DS, loads there of all variants etc. They showed a promotional film of this car on 3 wheels driving across a field, motorway and on a run way (?) so it is real.
User avatar
np
Posts: 1297
Joined: 13 May 2004, 03:13
Location: Bristol,UK
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by np »

I can certainly vouch for driving with a blow out.2 years ago my wife and i took our caravan to Italy for our honey moon.Driving along on the auto route doing 65mph,38c outside.Started to here a funny noise.Thought it was just the tyres on the hot sticky tarmac.Didn`t think anything of it.10 miles later!! still doing 65mph decided to pull over as the noise was unbearable.To my amazement,one of the back tyres on the Xantia had let go.A big hole in the side wall!God knows what would have happened with a normal car.But the Xantia kept going at 65mph.Didn`t feel a thing or affect the car in any way.The tyre was nearly off the rim!Once stopped though,had to drive 1/4m along hard shoulder to a wider bit to change it.Could only do 5mph as the car was undriverable,but could do 65mph before we stopped!!!
DoubleChevron
Posts: 622
Joined: 22 Sep 2003, 18:06
Location: Australia
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by DoubleChevron »

Hi Guys,
I DS will do it quite easily I imagine due to the sheer strength and rigidity of the subframe. I wouldn't like to do it with a CX (the bodys on them are very weak compared to a DS, you can't even jack up a CX without the doors being hard to open and close). The BX I have driven about 5kms home on 3wheels after the rear wheel bearing died. It was NOT nice, I needed the car on high which meant the car would bounce whenever I hit a bump in the road. Speed was limited to about 20km/h.
strength/engineering wise the Citroen DS stands head and tails above all else. Engineers not bean counters built them [:D]
seeya,
Shane L.
lhm_leak
Posts: 135
Joined: 21 Sep 2003, 02:33
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by lhm_leak »

np, I'll second that. I had a blowout of my N/S/F tyre on the M6 about 5 months ago, and the only thing that alerted me was the ear bashing din! I was travelling at a similar speed to yourself, about 70mph, and the Xantia didn't even twitch. The tyre was totally destroyed though.
Stu.
User avatar
np
Posts: 1297
Joined: 13 May 2004, 03:13
Location: Bristol,UK
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by np »

Sods law really.2 mths before we went i was speaking to another Xantia owner on a site,he told me about the blowout business,that you wouldn`t know it if you had one.Look what happend!!!
If we didn`t have a Xantia,i think we would have crashed.I missed out the fact that we were towing the caravan at the time!!!
oilyspanner
Posts: 1246
Joined: 26 Oct 2003, 16:08
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by oilyspanner »

In the BX hacking through snowdonia at a rate of knots, took an off camber one at speed rear felt a bit odd, flat! I had been cornering with some enthusiasm, try that in a metal sprung motor!
Stewart
Calum
Posts: 4
Joined: 21 Aug 2004, 18:52
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by Calum »

Didn't work on front wheel of xantia! Clipped by oncoming car at 60mph (combined 120?) burst front drivers tyre ripped off caliper and hit the ground hard. Result = square wheel, strut thru bonnet very sad xantia big gouge in road but at least i still had brakes and steering and didn't roll.
DoubleChevron
Posts: 622
Joined: 22 Sep 2003, 18:06
Location: Australia
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by DoubleChevron »

Hi Guys,
The problem is BX's and Xantias are just another car. The DS, SM, GS and apparantly the CX (though I can't fathom how) have center point steering. This means if you shred any tire no matter what the speed, the car will NOT swerve. Someone on the CX list (I forget who) ran over something on the road at speed instantly shredding both front tires. The car continued to track straight and he gently braked to a halt on the shoulder of the road.
BX's and Xantias will swerve as they don't have centerpoint steering, they also extremely annoyingly follow road cambers and require constant correction at speed. There not half the car the earlier cars are. In my CX I could safely take my hands off the steering wheel at 200km/h, the BX and Xantia I certainly would NOT do the same with, not even at 40km/h as it would immediatly vear off into the direction of the road camber.
seeya,
Shane L.
Jon

Post by Jon »

Thats quite right Shane
The GS, CX etc had a very well located double wishbone front suspension set up which gave almost perfect geometry. The Xantia and BX did away with this fine arrangement on cost/simplicity grounds and were fitted with Macpherson type front struts clamped to a lower arm, a much more "wobbly" arrangement I guess.
bikeboyz
Posts: 501
Joined: 21 Aug 2004, 17:26
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by bikeboyz »

The piece of film showing the 3 wheeled drive in the DS was on BBC2's "The Car's the star" programme when it was about the DS. It was driven around an airfield only on 3 wheels.
Post Reply