Why Better Cadillac CTS-V Steering Means Better Corvette Steering
As cars continue to advance away from traditional assist systems to more electronic means, engineers look for ways to take advantage of easier steering, but also how to keep steering-feel correct. Here is a look into what makes the Cadillac CTS-V a better handling car that is easy to drive daily, but still handles on the track like a true driver’s car. These same advances reach across the product line at GM, including the C7 Corvette.
One of the things you notice between a race car and a street car is how stiff its structure is. In a majority of the places you’d normally find bushings, they are replaced by solid pieces or rod ends on moving parts. These are all parts that don’t lend well to prevent or reduce NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness). Even some Corvette owners care more about NVH than how well the car handles, because they want a really amazing car.
The CTS and the CTS-V utilized designs that lead to what should be a far harsher car in the steering wheel, but thanks to its electronic steering assist, that harshness and additional vibration in the wheel is gone. You get a far stiffer structure for improved steering response without taking away from the car being comfortable on a daily basis.
In a recent Car and Driver article, Tony Roma said that “on the V models, we added underbody shear panels and tower-to-tower braces. We swapped bushings for rod ends to sharpen steering response.” And to balance out the difference in tour and track modes, Roma said that “in tour [mode], the car should operate with comfortable effort and minimal feedback. But in track mode, we turn off the algorithms for artificial lane centering, crown compensation, etc. That enables the EPS to focus on feedback to the driver.”
Even in the C7 Corvette you can experience many of those improvements in the steering and its response to cornering, thanks to much of the technology learned from the V program and constant improvement in the Corvette as it evolves.
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via [Car and Driver]
