Hi:
I recently bought a copy of Fred Puhn's book "How to Make your Car
Handle" and had a question for y'all on the list.
Don't have the book handy, but there's a section where he shows (using
an early Lotus as an example) how the independent FRONT suspension of a
car that was designed for large diameter tires (I think he used 26" for
the example) will change when smaller diameter tires and wheels (I
believe the example used 22")are used. The lower control arm, which is
designed to be more or less level when using the larger tires becomes
angled when using smaller tires. This causes the roll center to rise.
I'm nutshelling here.
Question #1 is this: Wouldn't the same principle apply to an independent
REAR suspension?
If the answer to the above question is Yes, then question #2 (ignoring
the front suspension which WAS designed for the smaller diameter wheels
and tires being currently used) is: would lowering the car at the rear
compensate for the higher rear roll center caused by using the smaller
diameter tires and wheels in the first place?
And lastly, if the answer to the second question is Yes, my final (if
you believe that I have a bridge to sell you :-) ) question is: would
lowering the car now cause the lower rear lower control arms to become
more level?
Okay, on re-reading this, I came up with question #4: If the answer to
question #2 is "no", or if lowering the car is not an option is it
possible to compensate for the higher rear roll center in some other
way, such as a stiffer rear anti-roll bar (possibly upgrading the front
bar also in order to balance things)?
Thanks in advance for any help you folks can give me.
Regards
David (perpetually confused) Sosna
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