➤ After switching back to the 1.5L naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine codenamed L2B in early 2020, Buick Yinglang quickly regained its strength and immediately returned to the mainstream public vision, ranking sixth in the list of compact car sales in 2020 with 295857 units, which was quite eye-catching.
However, after Yinglang returned to the candidate list of consumers, there is also a Buick compact car with a higher positioning in the half-range, which seems to have been forgotten .
That's right, it's Buick Veyron, I don't know how many people remember it?
Before officially dissecting this car, you may wish to take a look at this article about Lingdu that we pushed a few days ago (Portal: "Lingdu, Failed Apocalypse"). In fact, in the same year that SAIC Volkswagen launched Lingdu, that is, in 2015, Buick Veyron was also born in the same year.
At that time, due to the successive launch of two blockbuster products, the process of the "A+" class compact sedan market seemed to be moving towards a new stage. They all have similar commonalities: bigger, more stylish, more luxurious, more sporty; of course, they sell more expensive.
▲ Looking back at the exaggerated guide price of the 2015 Weilang, courage does not know whether it is Liang Jingru or Ling Du
However, contrary to Ling Du's frequent "star" route and the publicity model of increasing exposure, Wei Lang seems to want to capture the hearts of the people in a more "engineering" way, so they actually thought of using this compact car to dominate the "human design".
God's mysterious "Watt Linkage"
Wait a minute, the good villain Volkswagen LingDu first dressed himself up as a "coupe", then where did Wei Lang's control genes come from?
Buick's "must kill" is - Watt connecting rod.
▲The blue part is the main structure of the watt connecting rod
At first hearing this term, perhaps many viewers have been shocked by the Watt linkage, because in general, any technology with a name will appear to be very good, such as the McPherson suspension, as strong as the majority of Porsche 911 models still use this simple and effective front suspension form.
In addition to the eye-catching name of the watt linkage itself, there is a more special property, that is, its uniqueness.
Originally invented by legendary British inventor and engineer James Watt (yes, the founder of the first Industrial Revolution), Opel Automotive patented the use of watt linkages in cars years later. However, Opel Motors has been a subsidiary of general motors in Germany since 1929, that is, it has long been acquired by General Motors (Opel was sold to the PSA Group in 2017), so the watt linkage technology naturally became a common technology between the two car companies.
This background means that other automakers other than GM Group cannot "directly" use watt linkages. Of course, the paradox of business is that you can avoid patents and adopt similar structures, but you can't call this similar structure "watt linkage".
The technical naming rights are directly monopolized by the General Group, and such unique conditions give the Watt connecting rod a unique sense of mystery.
For the majority of consumers, Buick Veyron's endorsement of the story is quite enough, if more hard goods are released next, it may further arouse consumer interest, and even can't help but pay for it.
Watts can't even wrap up the twist beam
Although watt linkage has a long history, it has been applied to automobiles after the 21st century, as we said earlier, Opel Motors was the first car factory to combine watt linkage with torsion beam suspension, and applied for a patent for this.
Wait a minute, is there three words that feel pretty eye-catching?
▲ The rear suspension of the 2020 Veyron still uses a non-independent rear suspension of the torsion beam with a watt connecting rod
You read that right, it is the torsion beam, the familiar torsion beam suspension actually appeared at such a time, however, this is indeed the "truth" of the Buick Veylang rear suspension.
Connecting rods to form a set of suspension, nothing more than two forms, either "combined" to form a set of multi-link suspension; or attached to the original suspension structure, playing some part of the strengthening or other icing on the cake.
So we look back at the four words "Watt linkage", and it is not difficult to find that at least the Watt linkage on buick Velang is an additional set of reinforcement rods.
So why did Buick add this set of watt linkage structures to Velang's rear torsion beam suspension?
First of all, it is naturally the need for commercial packaging, which is to give people a sense of mystery in the clouds and fog, if you do not look closely at the rear suspension of Veyron, there is really an illusion of independent suspension.
Second, adhering to the premise of "existence is for a reason", in order to taste the real role of this set of watt connecting rods in an appropriate way -
The picture above is a schematic diagram of two types of torsional beam suspensions. In fact, the torsional beam suspension is also called the torsional beam suspension, as the name suggests, the torsional beam suspension will be the suspension of the main beam itself as a deformed medium, so as to achieve the entire rear suspension action. As a result, we can see a variety of torsion beam suspension designs, but the original intention of its design is nothing more than two, either more comfortable or more inclined to control.
▲ The action of the torsional beam / torsional beam suspension is similar to the principle of leverage, the schematic line is the length of the force arm from the axis to the center of the torsional beam, so it can be seen that the longer the force arm, the greater the degree of "deformation" of the main beam, of course, this degree of deformation is generally relatively microscopic
From the comparison of this schematic diagram, we can also see that if the main girder of the torsion beam suspension is farther away from the rear wheel axis, then it can be judged that the vehicle is more comfortable-oriented; conversely, if the main beam of the torsion beam suspension is closer to the rear wheel axis, the vehicle is more inclined to handling.
Due to the attribute constraints of non-independent suspension, the beautiful vision of "having both" can only make certain trade-offs with lower costs.
From the schematic diagram of the chassis suspension of Buick Veyron, it can be seen that the main girder of the torsion beam of Veyron is still some distance from the real rear wheel axis of the vehicle, which can also be judged that the torsion beam suspension of Veyron is actually a comfortable orientation as a whole.
Although the slight deformation of the torsion beam main beam will make the comfort of the vehicle better, at the same time, this deformation also brings a question, that is, how controllable is this deformation? If this subtle deformation affects the suspension geometry of the vehicle, there will even be additional uncontrollable problems for the handling of the vehicle.
Imagine that this main girder is like a hard spring, changing its own shape as the road rises and falls, which is obviously extremely detrimental to the handling stability of the vehicle
Of course, automotive engineers will obviously have more ways to solve this irregular deformation problem by designing a unique torsional beam shape based on stronger, tougher steel.
The biggest difference between this set of torsional beam suspension on Buick Veyron and the ordinary torsional beam suspension is that a set of "insurance" general mechanisms are added on this basis, that is, this set of watt connecting rods.
▲This is a schematic diagram of the non-independent rear suspension of the torsion beam with watt linkage
On the basis of the rear torsion beam suspension, Buick adds a putter to its left and right parts, which are arranged almost vertically with the rear torsional beam, and are connected by a lever mechanism, interacting with each other, limiting the range of motion to each other.
Therefore, this set of watt linkages can play a role in reducing the compression and extension amplitude of the suspension on both sides, ensuring the vertical motion relationship between the body and the axle, not only controlling the rear wheel beam angle (the microscopic change amplitude), but also further reducing the roll of the vehicle and improving the over-bending stability of the vehicle.
Going around, the handsome rear suspension is actually more advanced?
Having said all that, it seems that the role of this set of watt connecting rods has suddenly become "magical" again. But don't rush to conclusions, let's find the answer from Buick's own car.
As long as you have the heart to look down at the British rear suspension of the Buick on the street, you will find that it is equipped with a pair of positive eight-verse multi-link rear independent suspension.
And that's not all. Then teach you to see a good thing.
What is the structure at the red circle in the image above? In fact, this is a set of rear anti-tilt bars. From the yinglang rear shock absorber barrel extends out of a similar ABS engineering plastic material (of course, this is also a cost consideration, with aluminum parts will obviously be more expensive) connecting rod, this part like a small dumbbell, the scientific name is called anti-roll rod linkage, or more people may have heard of the "plum string", said this thing.
And this rear anti-roll bar, fixed together by a pair of rubber sleeves on the left and right and the ball head of the anti-roll bar linkage, is actually a part that runs through the entire rear suspension.
▲Schematic diagram of the rear anti-tilt bar of the overseas version of the BMW 3 Series
In order to prevent the excessive action of the rear independent suspension and increase the handling and stability of the vehicle, in fact, there is also a structure similar to the torsion beam, which is the meaning of the rear anti-roll bar (in other words, the 100,000 yuan of cars are matched, is the owner of the BMW Brilliance 3 Series envious?). ）。
In other words, the rear anti-roll lever to the rear independent suspension seems to be equivalent to the Watt connecting rod to the rear torsional beam suspension, and the pre-known rear independent suspension can have better comfort, and even the material cost itself will be higher - wouldn't that be embarrassing?
As we all know, Buick Veyron's positioning is higher and the price is more expensive, but now consumers are less and less eating the "concept marketing" set, because real materials can impress people, and Yinglang's best-selling as always obviously verifies this truth.
Of course, for Buick, as long as he is not embarrassed, it is others who are embarrassed. Because if Buick hadn't thought so, The Veyron wouldn't have been able to do it from the start, would it?
In order to protect the "human design", there is no need to insist
Of course, then again, is this set of tuning actually good "twisting beam belt watt linkage non-independent rear suspension" is really the "culprit" that Velang has gradually forgotten?
Not necessarily.
Because in other hardware of the vehicle, at least in terms of exterior design, interior design, space performance, driving quality and other aspects, Veyron is indeed better than Yinglang, from this point of view, Veyron should not be "beaten into the cold palace" at once.
Referring to the owner's home of Veyron calendar annual sales chart we can also see that since October 2015, may be due to the terminal preferential range gradually released, Veyron began to go, and sales have always been relatively stable, even in November 2017 and January 2018, Veyron's sales have twice exceeded the 20,000 mark, for an A+ class sedan, this has reached the level of Volkswagen Sagittarius.
So, what has happened to Veyron since 2019?
Although the overall sales performance of the 2019 Buick Veyron has been far from previous years, at least one month is still rushing to 10,000 units. The question is, why is it October, and is it the law of "golden nine silver ten" at work?
Not. Because of the 2020 Buick Veyron, it was replaced by a three-cylinder engine.
And Weilang, who rushed to the mark of tens of thousands of vehicles, may be the last struggle of the four-cylinder engine model in stock.
Even though it is well known that Buick's three-cylinder engine is technologically newer, has better emissions and is not badly powered, consumers obviously still don't buy it. Then again, even if the "three cylinders" are "original sin", Buick can't deny them all, otherwise it seems to deny everything.
Since Yinglang's three-cylinder engine strategy has failed, only "big brother" Wei Lang can stand up and be forced to be an innocent victim.
However, does Buick's insistence still make sense?
Write at the end
The 2020 Veyron not only replaced the three-cylinder machine in its entire series, but also replaced the original double-clutch transmission that was not pleasing to the CVT gearbox, and in this way, we have to sigh that Veyron is really "one step wrong, step wrong step".
Say good sportiness, say good luxury, really one can't come back.
Then again, the series of Veyron's A+ class compact sedans seems to have reached a stage where they should have been discussed. Whether it is Sagitar to Bora, Lingdu to Langyi, or Weilang to Yinglang, at a time when the concept of modular platform is more and more absorbed by consumers, in addition to Toyota still continuing to "flicker", it seems that no oem will take it seriously.
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