Disheveled, with bloodshot eyes, I banged on my keyboard frantically into the night in an effort to solve America’s most pressing mystery: What the hell is that Chevrolet Sonic with four-wheel steering that a Milwaukee reader emailed to our tips line?
“Tips – Rear Wheel Steering Seen on a Chevy Sonic” reads the ominous email’s subject line. The email describes a vehicle so mysterious few even know it exists:
I work next to a stadium that occasionally rents out their parking lot for driver training. Today, for the first time, I noticed a Chevy Sonic (I think) that was turning surprisingly quickly. After watching it do another lap, I saw that it had rear wheel steering. I’m assuming that the instructor was controlling the rear steering, and the driver had to react and correct the “slide”. The company is called Driving Dynamics.
Included in the email was a video of the mysterious Sasquatch strutting its stuff in the Milwaukee Brewers’ parking lot. Behold perhaps the internet’s only footage of a four-wheel-steering Chevrolet Sonic:
Just look at that thing swing its arse around that parking lot, cutting in tight between cones in a slalom, making even my BMW i3’s turning radius look like that of a giant oil tanker. Amazing.
But mysterious.
So I did a bit of digging, and what I learned is that this thing has an official name: The Controlled Slide Car. Here’s a bit about the company behind it, Driving Dynamics, which has been sliding in a controlled fashion for many years:
Driving Dynamics is North America’s preferred partner in the field of advanced performance driver safety training and fleet risk management. Its unique and highly effective approach to behind-the-wheel driver education, web-based learning and driver risk management has helped numerous fleet-based organizations achieve significant reductions in their crash rates. Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Newark, Delaware, Driving Dynamics has exclusive rights in North America to use its Controlled Slide Car (US Patent 5823288) at training programs conducted in 55 major markets at more than 200 training sites.
Basically, this is a driving safety company that specializes in making sure fleet drivers know what they’re doing. Driving Dynamics even has a “Driver Safety Excellence Hierarchy,” which is nice and corporate-y:
Anyway, let’s look at the patent for this Controlled Slide Car, since our tipster, Sam, has been agonizing over that four-wheel-steering Chevy Sonic for far too long and deserves to know. The patent was published in 1998, which is when Driving Dynamics says it introduced the Controlled Slide Car, so clearly there was a Chevy Sonic predecessor. By the looks of it, that original car may have been a Dodge Neon:
But how does this thing actually work? Well, the short of it is that the Controlled Slide Car is mimicking oversteer and understeer conditions, which are caused by “the interrelationship between the front end, rear end, and the center of gravity of the vehicle,” per the patent, which breaks the whole system, writing:
Specifically, the controllable slide car of the present invention comprises a rear steering linkage assembly and a controller that attaches to the rear wheel mounting assemblies of an automobile. In effect, the invention selectively “steers” the rear wheels to produce “sliding” of the automobile. Through operator manipulation of a control unit, the controller facilitates steering of the rear steering linkage assembly.More specifically, the controller is powered by the battery of the automobile via a control unit. The control unit contains an operator interface such as a joystick through which the operator “steers” the rear wheels of the automobile. As such, oversteer and understeer conditions can be simulated in a moving automobile when the joystick is moved in a particular direction. For example, when the joystick is moved in the same direction as the turning front wheels (i.e., joystick moved to the left during a left-hand turn), the automobile simulates an understeer condition. Likewise, when the joystick is moved in the opposite direction with respect to the turned front wheels, the automobile simulates an oversteer condition. When the joystick remains in a middle position, i.e., neutral position, the controller remains in a neutral position that produces a straight rear tire alignment.As a result of using the invention installed on an automobile, the automobile can be safely, accurately and controllably placed in an oversteer and understeer condition at any speed.
So basically, it’s a joystick operated rear steering system, and it’s presumably understeering the driver by turning the wheels in the same direction and oversteering the driver by turning the wheels in the opposite direction. How the driver reacts is meant to provide an indication of their emergency maneuvering/crash avoidance skills. If you’re a big company with lots of drivers carrying precious merch and lots of personal injury attorneys foaming at the mount to rob you blind, such training could be useful.
At least what’s shown in the patent looks rather primitive, mechanically, employing some tie rods and an electrically controlled ram (240 in the photo below):
Specifically, the rear steering linkage assembly 120 is affixed to the frame or unibody 250 of the automobile 102 at bracket 252, to the shock absorbers 104 and 105 and to the wheel mounting assemblies 108. Specifically, the assembly attaches to the backing plates 202 and 204 of the wheel mounting assemblies 108. The rear steering linkage assembly 120 contains a tie rod 206, control arms 212 and 218, and torsion bars 224 and 230. The controller 140 contains an electrical ram subsystem 240 and a control unit (144 in FIG. 1). The control unit contains circuitry that applies voltage to the electrical ram subsystem via manipulation of an input device such as a joystick, rheostat, potentiometer, push buttons and the like. For ease of use, the input device is preferably a joystick.
The photo below is looking at the car from the rear. Basically, the ram, 240, pushes one of the knuckles/wheel carriers, which rotates, pushes/pulls the tie rod connecting to the other knuckle/wheel carrier, thus turning that wheel, too.
So there you are, tipster named Sam. Your agonizing can come to an end. You may now know the freedom that comes only with true enlightenment in the area of rear-steered Controlled Slide Cars.
I am absolutely foaming at the mouth for the rear steer dodge neon.
A few guys have put a neon front suspension and drivetrain in the back of a neon. One guy welded the rack so it wouldn’t move, another guy put a hydraulic ram or an electric motor on it to steer the rear tires. Someday I’ll do this.
Having owned a Cruze from 2012 (new) to 2024 and it having the turning radius of a barge, I wish my Cruze had had this.
When the airbagged crowd sees a mod they dont have…….
Ok was this filmed in a different state than the state the car was being driven in? It could have been a match box car from what I saw.
We’ll make sure the Random Video On the Internet Police get right on it! Surely with a stern warning (or some criminal charges), Sam here will think twice before failing to sprint 100s of yards across a baseball stadium parking lot so he can provide poor 1978fiatspyderfan with the precious resolution he so desperately needs! What a fool Sam was to probably have something else to do in his life than run onto a closed course during a live driving course!!! It’s terrible what you’re going through.
It was filmed from 1978.
Yeah, well, being from Michigan, I had my “training” for over/understeer in deserted snowy parking lots, as Nature intended.
It would be fun to cross one of these with a Domino’s DXP Bolt.
Say what? That doesn’t come off very well, especially when directed at a reader.
Agreed. Taking a dig at a reader is deeply uncool. Especially a reader that sent in a tip.
David could have ended the piece with the proceeding light-hearted paragraph about the enlightenment we all gained from this piece. But he did not end with that paragraph… :/
Is that a dig?
I was just saying I went down a deep rabbit hole on a really random car. We nerds have a tendency to do that around here!
But I can see how that can be misinterpreted, so it’s nuked!
I didn’t take it as a dig.
It is not a dig. It implies that instead of a quick answer, which you provided, you went further down the rabbit hole and provided way more information than what was expected and vomited it back at us. I appreciate it, and recognize this was a dig at yourself for going way further with the answer than you needed to.
In hindsight I can see it wasn’t meant as a dig. It just came off wrong this time since the object of the comparison wasn’t clear. Poking fun at yourself is great. Calling a *reader* unimportant…less great.
For the record, I’m quite glad you went down the deep rabbit hole. I did like the article, and I’m all for self-deprecation. It’s one of the things that makes the Autopian such a special place.
Also…authors taking the time to reply to comments? That’s cool. Thanks (again) for making this a special place.
As the tipster himself, I can confidently say that I was more offended by David’s Shower Spaghetti than anything written in this article.
Lord. Please find somewhere else to be a Faberge egg.
We aren’t wilting flowers here.
Oh my god. If you are going to be this fragile please find another corner of the internet.
About 10 years ago I did a defensive driving course for an employer in Calgary, AB. The place they sent me to had a modified mid-90’s Chev half ton that was modified so that the instructor could flick you into a skid at random. One of the most fun driving courses I ever took!
Waaay back (2005) when I was in my final year at school, so just old enough to be learning to drive, we went to an old airfield and drove around in a selection of Ford Kas.
But they also had a Fiesta with a similar sort of rear-wheel steering setup, and the instructor could just throw you into a slide at will. It was certainly entertaining!
Woooo! Miller Park mentioned on the Autopian! (No I won’t call it AmFam Field, you’re lucky I didn’t call it County Stadium)
The parking lot they’re in is used for a lot of AutoX events and driving schools like these. Harley used to host bike training classes there as well if I remember, kind of a nice use of all the empty space on non-game days. The rumor was they were going to put in apartments and a shopping center there to make the stadium apart of a “community”. I say nerts to that! Keep racing alive at the ball park.
Plus living right next to a freaking stadium is not exactly ideal!
*points to the city of Green Bay*
That’s a bit debatable.
Packers fans would live IN the stadium if they could.
My company had me take that class. At the time it was the neon. The system was pretty low tech and not robust. When they would put it into oversteer my instincts would have me lean into it and accelerate. The instructor kept telling at me to slow down so it didn’t break.
Thanks for the insight! I was curious how well this would actually simulate understeer or oversteer. I just can’t see it giving the driver the same feeling as true under/over steer.
Yeah, I can see it doing okay simulating oversteer, a *bit*, on something FWD (for… all the times a FWD car oversteers, you know), but understeer? It wouldn’t understeer, it’d just shimmy sideways.
If anything it’s good for testing how people handle the car losing control on a wet or icy surface. Steer into the skid kind of thing. But I don’t think it’s as broadly applicable as they tout.
Reminds me of the time I saw a hedgehog running around a parking lot.
What a great idea.
I did skid training in a car with four casters on hydraulic rams, one on each corner. You’d drive round the course and the instructor would raise the front, rear or all of the car to make the tyres lose grip, simulating understeer, oversteer or driving on ice.
I’ve done a lot of skidding around in cars (because I’m a reckless idiot), and I was so impressed with how natural it felt that I got a load of friends and family to have a go. My wife, cousin and sister-in-law have all said that the training helped them avoid crashes when driving in winter, even years later. You remember the feeling, and the training pops in to your head.
The instructor can vary the severity of the loss of grip by jacking the car up higher, so the spins can be nice and gentle for newbies, or really shocking for anyone cocky. It’s a great teaching aid for attitude as well as skill.
That is the type of skid training car I had a play in at Exeter, it was good fun! and yes, learnt a lot about car control!
This was what we had for driver training at Honda. I feel like this system works better than the rear wheel steer system since the wheels are actually sliding. I had lots of experience sliding around in snowy conditions and the caster setup felt exactly the same and was controlled in the same way. It would even spin out completely if you didn’t react appropriately, so we had lots of experience going up to and beyond the limit.
The “test” for the course was to induce oversteer, then hold the slide all the way around a circle marked on the pavement. It was the most fun I’ve ever had at work.
Yeah our instructor made sure everyone got to experience a spin.
Well, nearly everyone. I did my training the same year I finished 12th in the national drift championship…
That sounds a lot more effective and true-to-life to simulate loss of traction than what they’re doing here. Kind of want to do that! The most “training” I’ve had was Forza Motorsport back in the day, getting myself in dumb situations and learning to pull out, which I half-credit (the other half was luck) a few years later with a skid I was in that could have gone very poorly.
My version of this was going into a snowy parking lot as a teenager and my mom yanking the handbrake at random times
My first car was a 2CV. When I tried handbrake turns in the snow I found out the handbrake works on the front wheels.
It was only when I finally got a real car I could learn to do skids.
Most interesting Sonic ever.
There used to be a Class A RV made with 4 wheel steering. You should get Mercedes to run one down and you could make it the moving command center for The Autopian.
I recognize this spot as a local. Same parking lot area they do auto X at the Brewers stadium. That area, Canal street & immediate industrial zone around there are fun to rip around on when it’s off hours. I43 S down to Mercedes home state and back are also enjoyable as well.
Based on my experience the Sonic could use 4WS. The thing has a pretty large turning radius for something so small.
Back in high school we figured out a much cheaper way to induce oversteer in a FWD car, it only cost a couple lunch trays from the cafeteria.
The Burger King and McDonald’s by my high school stopped giving trays to anyone who looked under the age of 25 because so many of them ended up under the back wheels of everyone’s FWD crapboxes. Boy did we have a lot of fun tray-sliding my friend’s first-gen Integra…
Same.
Now I’d love to do this at a Sonic — in a Sonic — just for the retro-lulz. While playing Sonic. And listening to Sonic…Youth.
There used to be a company that made Skid Monster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4zDY5xjXIo Years ago there was a driving school that used the parking lot of the community college near my house to do their training. The way that system works is that the instructor can lock the wheels in the straight ahead position or unlock them at will. It was interesting the glimpses I’d catch when driving by as they would have them drive across a sloped part of the parking lot and randomly unlock the casters.
That must be the most expensive Chevy Sonic ever made.
Also the coolest.