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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
CARBARN | Mercedes-Benz F400 Carving | maybe you guys who already knew the car was no longer surprised to see this car, now that might make you first saw this car, because cars that have a very extreme form of this ever marketed. want to know? The following report The F 400 Carving design team focused on two objectives: lending shape to leading-edge technologies and giving innovations real design appeal. A great deal of imagination was required in order to harmonize the technology and the design. To put it another way: it was a design job like no other. The F 400 designers found the unique chassis technology a tough nut to crack. They had to come up with a concept that allowed the wheels enough room to move during cornering with active camber control on the one hand, whilst ensuring that the car also cut a good figure with the wheels in the normal position on the other.
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
Taking these criteria as the starting point, a multinational competition was launched about two years ago, inviting young designers from the Mercedes studios in Germany, Japan and the USA to come up wîth ideas. A flood of exciting suggestions came in, ranging from utopian supercars to comical fun-cruisers and from four-seater cabriolets to pure driving machines with one-man cockpits. This particular stage of development became known as the 'emotional phase' and proved vital in determining the scope of the F 400 Carving project's design potential and in properly channeling the design process. Indeed it was an absolute necessity since there can be no doubt that, besides requiring technical know-how, designing such a vehicle is all about emotions: a passion for automobiles, a fascination wîth technology and an enthusiasm for dynamic and enthralling motoring.
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
And what vehicle concept could better and more aptly symbolize these aspects than an open-top sports car? A completely open-top sports car - a speedster with an elongated, extremely flat and low-slung engine hood, a short tail end, an interior tailor-made for two. Plus a whole host of stylish features that immediately stir the emotions and reinforce the car's message: the wide, low-slung air intake in the front section, the sharp rake of the windshield, the lateral exhaust pipes and the distinctive roll-over bar behind the seats. In addition to active camber control, the F 400 Carving research car is fitted with other forward-looking steering and chassis systems, including a steer-by-wire system. Sensors pick up the driver's steering inputs and send this information to two microcomputers which, in turn, control an electrically driven steering gear. The Daimler Chrysler engineers also charted new territory when it came to the suspension tuning, and introduced a first: an active hydropneumatic system that optimises the suspension and shock absorption in line with the changing situation on the road, all at lightning speed.
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
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| Mercedes-Benz F 400 Carving |
The F 400 Carving is also the showcase for a totally new form of lighting technology developed by the Stuttgart-based researchers: fibre-optic lines are used to transmit light from xenon lamps beneath the bonnet to the main headlamps. This technology stands out by virtue of its high perform-ance and extremely space-saving design. Additional headlamps positioned on the sides also come on when the car is cornering. The F 400 Carving is an exciting and harmonious blend of technology and design. The shape of the sports car – notably its distinctive wing profiles – provides the necessary room for the wheels to move when the active camber control is at work during cornering and, at the same time, emphasises the youthful and highly-adventurous nature of this concept study. In order to reflect the research car's high-quality driving dynamics, the de-signers opted for a speedster concept – incorporating an extended bonnet, a windscreen wîth an extremely sharp rake, a short tail end and an interior tailor-made for two.
