At 03:21 PM 9/21/00 -0500, Linnhoff, Eric wrote:
>Anyway, I've got a few suspension questions and would appreciate some help
>from you all.
Few? Heck you asked questions it takes 2 inch thick books written by
engineers to try to cover!
Buy or borrow the books and read them over the winter. Meanwhile, contact
one of the trusted suppliers and buy their recommended setup and while you
are at it, see if you can get them to explain why it is the recommended
setup. Next spring, start driving the setup and making minor adjustments.
Take the Evolution Dial in school or something similar.
The basic principles are relatively "easy" to understand . . . if you read
every book you can find a Zillion times like I have in the last 25 years!
However, the interactions, etc. confuse/confound the world's best
suspension engineers at times due to the extremely complicated interactions
between the various pieces, the course and surface variables, and
sometimes, I think, the phase of the moon.
Keep in mind two basic principles:
1) In any engineering situation such as suspension setup, there is more
than one way to get the same overall performance result, especially since
there are an incredible number of tradeoffs.
2) In car setup, the absolute biggest variable is the "nut behind the
wheel". Unless the driver keeps the car at the limit of the setup, the
"engineer" doesn't know what the limits really were and neither does the
driver.
This, of course, is my opinion as an amature race car engineer and
driver:-) When the "car/driver" aren't fast enough, I don't know whether to
"blame" the engineer, driver, or chief mechanic, or owner (me). One thing I
don't do, however, is blame my crew chief (my wife)!
Dick Rasmussen
CM 85
85 Van Diemen RF-85 Formula Ford
|