There's one more place a suspension can have an important influence on a
car's behavior-- when at speed the car starts to deviate from a straight
line. A good suspension geometry will allow the driver to bring it back to
the black line without much drama but one that's not right may cause the
deviation to increase; that deviation makes it even worse, etc, etc.-- a
high speed instability that has been built into the suspension. Aerodynamics
can modify the situation but if the suspension geometry isn't right, you're
fighting an uphill battle.
There is some computer software on the market that makes the job of
analyzing the suspension much easier than it used to be. One of the vendors
that I've used is AutoWare but there are others that may be as good or
better.
Suspension design has come a long way from the old days of drawing it out in
chalk on the garage floor. Some of those cars went fast but some didn't; the
CAD programs take the luck out of the suspension design proceedure. Besides,
it's alot easier.
Just a few thoughts on the subject....
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Turk [mailto:kturk@ala.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 7:46 AM
To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Shocks and suspension
Well after kinda soaking up knowledge on shocks for a couple of days
from some really bright people... here is what I think... Shocks work no
matter what the speed... the amount of compression or rebound a fella
decides he needs is directly related to what school of thought he follows...
But the basic physic's are still the same.... a Spring in a car reacts no
matter what the speed and the shock then has the ability to dampen that
movement.... bout that simple....
As for the suspension ... well it works also..... BUT.... and it's a big
BUT.... Where and why one set up works better then another is Pure
Theory.... no one so far can tell me if a Four link set up is better once
the car is actually under power After the last shift... Most agree it's
better during changing moments... such as leaving the line or during the
weight transfer associated with shifting the car... Most also will tell you
that a four link set up is more tuneable.... Again thou... most agree that
if your not going to spend your time tuning the four link it's a waste of
money.... This isn't a Plug and Play option.... Dave and I had a
conversation a while back that has some merit at this point and it was that
tuning the suspension was usually about VERY fine incremental changes ....
as most the time the set up was designed to work within a very limited set
of parameters and most tuning is associated with fine incremental changes...
In other words it's good to about 95% of it's ability out of the box....
All this theory and so little time....
Last part of this is noting the differences between a Dirt track car
that has to corner and a drag car that doesn't..... in a drag set up the
bottom bar is normally set level or slightly up hill..... with the top bar
aimed downhill...... the Dirt track folks do the exact opposite... they aim
the bottom bar down hill and the top bar up hill.... Oh and them dirt guys
have different length bars.... just to add more problems to the fray....
Personally it's all interesting... but on the end of the day once your
past the 1 mile marker in the last gear.... the car is set.... the only job
of the suspension at that point is to allow the minimal travel associated
with irregularities in the salt... and to maintain the rear end in it's
location as it transfers the power to the salt....
Okay.... lead on folks....
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