I need to quote the immortal Andy Banta on this.
"Repeat After Me. 'It is a system. Everything is related. It is a
System'"
Any time you touch *any* tunable parameter in a suspension setup, go
back and look at all the others. You've changed something else. Yes,
even toe.
Lowering the frame by shortening the spring puts the hub higher relative
to the frame than before. Doing so puts your hub in a different position
as far as bump steer goes. If it is the same on both sides, you've
changed the toe. Same argument goes for the camber.
The problem with cutting the springs is, as mjb pointed out yesterday,
you are going to have the wrong spring rate. Racing requires a much
higher spring rate than driving on the street, and autox, even higher
still. (IMHO)
"Its a System."
Took me alot of years to get it through my head, despite the best
efforts of folks like Andy, Scott Fisher, and Chris K.
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Joe Curry wrote:
>
> I want to thank everyone who weighed in with options on lowering my Spit's
>front end. Today, I went ahead and shortened my springs by another 1.5"
> and it indeed had the desired effect. The frame at the front outrigger is
>now 4" from the pavement.
>
> However, this was not without other complications.
>
> My muffler is now even closer to the pavement and I await with baited breath
>to see if I drag it off at the next event.
>
> A couple of other observations that I made afterwards are:
>
> 1. The front now has additional negative camber, which I think I'll leave
>for now to see if it helps. It is not excessive for a race car and I think
> it will help.
>
> 2. It appears that lowering the car also added a bit of additional toe-out.
>I adjusted this a bit to bring it in some, but I would like to ask what
> the consensus of the list is on front in toe adjustment.
>
> Thanks again for all the suggestions and comments. I probably am not
>finished tinkering (are we ever??) In fact, I may yet buy a set of competition
> springs.
>
> Regards,
> Joe (C)
>
> P.S. I was surprised that the springs are still long enough that they don't
>flop around inside the spring perches when the suspension is unloaded!
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