>Besides, it's sad, but most of the time people equate handling with the car
>being just flat-out stiff. And since the front will react faster with more
>spring, it MUST handle better!!!! Of course I always ask them if they
>think an M3 or an RX7tt is a good handling car. Always answered "YES!".
>Funny, I tell them, as they roll quite a lot....... This is usually met
>with silence on the other end of the phone. But, then they realize I might
>acutally be trying to help, as opposed to just selling them the most
>expensive part I can...... :-)
>
>
>Sam Strano Jr.
>Strano Performance Parts
>www.stranoparts.com
>800-729-1831 -- orders
>814-849-3417 -- tech-line
Excellent point... the springs need to be as *soft* as possible short of
causing problems like these:
If you can't adjust your suspension to get enough negative camber to
prevent the outside shoulders from scuffing (i.e. your tires are running on
their edges in turns instead of lying flat against the pavement, or seen
another way, your tread temperatures aren't even when you measure them with
a tire pyrometer after running on a skidpad) then you either need more
adjustment (say, by using camber plates), or you need to stiffen the
suspension.
If your suspension keeps bottoming out (especially in bumpy turns where
this is most likely to happen) you need to stiffen the suspension (or add
more wheel travel!).
Though, stiffening above and beyond those needs can also be helpful:
If you have to run tons of negative camber to get the tires to work best in
turns (see above) then you're sacrificing traction for straight-line
braking and acceleration in favor of cornering traction. By going somewhat
stiffer you can achieve a better compromise between cornering- and
straight-line-traction.
If your car is really sloppy and has horrible transient response, stiffer
springs can help (though perhaps not as much as stiffer shocks?).
Especially a problem in slaloms. Going stiffer than needed might be of some
help there.
Hope this helps.
--
Dennis S Pedersen
DSP Suspension Design Spreadsheets:
http://www.rahul.net/dennisp/suspension/
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