This paper investigates the minimum time/limit handling car manoeuvring through nonlinear
optimal control techniques. The resulting 'optimal driver'controls the car at its physical limits.
The focus is on cornering: different road surfaces (dry and wet paved road, dirt and gravel off-
road) and transmission layouts (rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive) are
considered. Low-drift paved circuit-like manoeuvres and aggressive/high-drift even counter-
steering rally like manoeuvres are found depending on terrain/layout combinations. The …

The paper investigates minimum time/limit handling car manoeuvring through nonlinear
optimal control techniques. The resulting'optimal driver'controls the car at its physical limits.
The focus is on cornering: different road surfaces (dry and wet paved road, dirt and gravel off-
road) and transmission layouts (RWD, FWD, AWD) are considered. Low drift paved circuit-
like manoeuvres and aggressive/high drift even counter-steering rally-like manoeuvres are
found depending on terrain/layout combinations. The results shed a light on the optimality of …