Abstract: A vehicle behavior control apparatus is provided which is designed to estimate the state of behavior of a vehicle body and to apply the brakes to wheels for suppressing an unwanted change in behavior of the vehicle body. The apparatus determines a lateral momentum of the vehicle body during traveling to estimate the state of behavior of the vehicle body based on the speeds of the wheels and calculates a target braking effort to be produced by each of the brake actuators based on the state of behavior of the vehicle.

Abstract: Engine speed is controlled during gear change by way of both fuel supply apparatus and exhaust brake so that engine speed is equal to the rotational speed of an input shaft of a transmission coupled via a clutch to the engine. When the engine speed is higher than the rotational speed of the transmission input shaft, exhaust braking is performed to quickly reduce the engine speed thereby establishing synchronization. Then the fuel supply apparatus is controlled to reduce the amount of fuel for maintaining the decreased engine speed. On the other hand, when the engine speed is lower than the rotational speed of said transmission input shaft, only the fuel supply apparatus is controlled to increase the fuel amount. Engine braking is performed only when the clutch is in disconnected state, and therefore, vehicle speed is not decelerated due to the engine braking.