The YouTube channel Brick Technology has demonstrated several off-road principles and made many air-powered Lego engines that gradually improve as the videos progress.
The clip starts with improving the basic vehicle’s steering angle. This modification is quite a popular one. It helps the drifters to keep up with their skids while also enabling the car to turn a little sharper and get into a slightly smaller space. The other challenge comes here as, after every improvement, the spot gets smaller.
The next improvement is four-wheel steering. In reality, just moving the power from the rear to the front steer axle makes it more effective.
From there, four-wheel steering is added and you can probably guess what happens. The car can eventually turn all of its wheels 90 degrees and slide into a parking spot.
There is one more addition but that is not applicable to roadgoing vehicles. The car gets shorter.
Some real cars have similar features. Four-wheel steering is relatively common on high-dollar vehicles, although it never allows the vehicle to slide around left and right without any forward movement.
Vehicles that get longer and shorter exist in reality too. Electric power makes this thing easier. Instead of flexible fuel lines and driveshafts being flexible, the power cables are made flexible instead. Alternatively, you can have two separate batteries and connect them with a flexible cable. Or just don’t power one of the axles.
The closest thing to a production car that can change its shape considerably is a small electric commuter called the City Transformer. It gets wider for greater stability at high speeds and then goes narrow again in tighter urban environments.
