Caracterización dinámica de una máquina automotriz: la camioneta Mitsubishi L200

The vehicle is the wonderful wheeled machine with the highest production in the world, providing the levels of satisfaction, freedom, and comfort that people need for their mobility. There is a constant need to meet the ever-growing demands of humanity regarding transportation comfort, the increasing demand for vehicles with better performance, and achieving improved energy efficiency. A field dedicated to addressing these requirements is vehicle dynamics. This work dynamically characterizes an automotive machine, the Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck, taking into account the main considerations for vehicle design. These include: the characteristics that the engine must possess for its performance, the design of the transmission to establish power and torque transmission ratios, the design of braking systems and vehicle grip on the ground, and the analysis of vehicle behavior under lateral forces when entering a curve. In conclusion, the Mitsubishi L200 presents a high compression ratio and thermal efficiency, making it ideal for trucks with significant traction capacity, which can exceed 40% gradients in first gear. Meanwhile, fifth gear is intended for rapid movement in very low-gradient areas. Although sliding and rollover speeds are acceptable, stability in curves is lower, with slight oversteer due to low pressure in the rear tires.