The “30 Metre Car” From Continental

One of the Holy Grails of the auto industry, and the tyre industry in particular, has been a car which would stop in 30 metres from a speed of 100kph. Continental AG has recently demonstrated a highly upgraded version of a compact-sized car that will achieve that goal. The development of a car able to achieve this goal, the 30-metre car, has been set as a target by Continental, and others for some years, but Continental is the first claiming to have achieved the target.

Continental’s team dedicated to the project was entitled “Reduced Stopping Distance” project. The current “best” stopping distance from 100kph from a compact car is 38.5 metres; so attaining a reduction of 8.

5 metres is a quite a considerable achievement for the Continental team. The project brought together development researchers from Continental’s tyre business, with experts from Continental Teves, the brake and electronic systems operation; the latter now part of Continental Automotive Systems Group. This expertise, combined with existing knowledge of air suspension, mounting and chassis systems, were all brought together within the ContiTech Group to place the group at the vanguard of the chassis development sector.

According to Dr. Stephan Kessel, “We want to be the forerunner in total chassis management so we’ve also got to have the appropriate damping and steering skills.” This suggests that further acquisitions may be under consideration in the near future.