Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryce
This is a good place to throw out an Idea I had.
If you design/tune a shock for a specific car and a specific spring rate then you add a sway bar, you are changing the spring rate when the sway bar is loaded. This extra load is adding spring to that side, so one should change the shock setting in this situation, that is not possible unless you have a computer controlled shock.
So in a turn where the sway bar is loading the suspension and you hit a bump you have a over-sprung and underdampened setup. I am just thinking outloud.
|
Thats a pretty good thought. Lets think about it....
Springs are not linear or are they, I think of them as being not but I dont know.
Shocks are kinda linear, but not. Maybe more so than a spring, but different speeds of the piston will create a non-linear force due to the fixed orifice and changing piston speeds..
So if you have two components that are non-linear with the force applied they will both add some strange unpredicted handling characteristics during some hard driving.. But still predictable with some use, getting acquainted with the car. All cars have some quirks.
And really, I dont think you can over come that. But thats when the drivers skill comes into play. The driver can react to non-linear suspensions to overcome the imperfection that a suspension has.
We as car modifiers and car builders (the pros) can only take the setup to a certain point. As close to a stable ride as possible.
Then its time for the driver to accommodate and work within the bounds of the car. And some do it better. The guys that know their car and how it handles.
I personally dont think there is a perfect suspension for a car, even the really expensive F1 cars. Thats where the driver comes into play, knowing the car and how it will react.
But off in the not so distant future I see completely active suspensions. Shocks, springs, sway bars, EVERYTHING. All computer controlled.
Active suspensions are around, and they are expensive. But being used. Read magnetorheological damper. They are on many cars and so far so good. Expect to see more of that. Ferrofluid dampers have been around and will be used more.
JR