Nissan's new concept car 'feels like flying' (w/ Video)

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An employee of Japan's auto giant Nissan demonstrates the new concept vehicle, the "Land Glider", a tandem-ride ultra light-weight electric vehicle with a narrow body at the company's design center at Atsugi city in Kanagawa prefecture, suburban Tokyo. The car shifts its centre of gravity whilst turning by leaning like a motorcycle.

Nissan unveiled Thursday a futuristic concept car that tilts to the side when going around bends to make drivers feel like they are gliding through the air.

   

• antialias - Oct 08, 2009
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  That looks seriously sexy. Semms to be heavily influenced by the Dutch carver concept of a few years back.
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• nerdson - Oct 08, 2009
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  three dimension way? x, y and z? the movies didn't show it flying... or the projector don't know what is three dimension...
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• danman5000 - Oct 08, 2009
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  Oh Japan. How I enjoy reading about your wacky and utterly useless concepts.
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• DozerIAm - Oct 08, 2009
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  If I am going to have a sense of security, I'm going to need more that "a body designed to look like it is protected with armour". A body that actually protects me, for example.
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• ecartman - Oct 08, 2009
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  95% of the driving my wife and I do is 1 passenger or solo, so why wouldn't I want one of these?
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• RobertKLR - Oct 08, 2009
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  It's just a pimped up 4 wheel motorcycle. No sale.
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• magpies - Oct 08, 2009
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  If only it didnt tip over easly.
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• flashgordon - Oct 09, 2009
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  i kind of like this latest japanese gizmo(japans idea to invest over four hundred billion into science and technology will go to waste if they continue to spend it on gizmos like this); i'm a little bit surprised it hasn't been thought of before; but, maybe that's because of the need for computers; well, computers have been around for awhile; still, the better the computers, the better this will work.
  
  As a racing enthusiast, I think this could be made to work; it gives a bit more of the stability that four wheels offers with the agility of two wheels; the way the sporting rules are going, i'm wondering if somebody tries this!? The four wheels and the electronics obviously adds the weight two wheels doesn't; but, with increasing materials abilities and smaller electronics, who knows, maybe we could see this out on the racetracks sooner than later!
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• otto1923 - Oct 10, 2009
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  It's just a pimped up 4 wheel motorcycle.

  Yah really, I like riding a bike but I cant say its like flying. And you have the freedom to counter-lean- I would feel seriously restricted in this thing probably. I dont see the benefit per $$.
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• otto1923 - Oct 10, 2009
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  http://spyder.brp.com/
  -Pretty much the same concept-
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• otto1923 - Oct 10, 2009
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  Or some-thing like this-thing:
  http://www.atvsty...r-review
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• fixer - Oct 10, 2009
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  On the other hand, For someone with a back problem it would be just the ticket.
  The sideways forces generated when cornering are painful if you have lumbar support issues, and this would nicely solve that problem.
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• DozerIAm - Oct 12, 2009
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  The Sinclair C5 and the Reliant Robin were both marketed years ago but no one wanted to buy them - like the flying car, the leaning car is so full of compromises as to make it satisfactory to none. I am betting the Carver One and the Naro manage to achieve the same sad result.
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• NotAsleep - Oct 13, 2009
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  This probably hasn't been used in racing a whole lot because to tilt the vehicle like that, you've got to lift one side of it. Better to just keep the entire vehicle low to the ground.
  
  Does it know to tilt less during slow turns or will it toss you out of your seat? Neat concept but I'll bet it costs a fortune to make it work properly. Why not just buy a motorcycle or, even better, a lightweight airplane that can ACTUALLY fly?
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