camber vs. ride height, what I do in class instead of learning Options

[Dave-O]

Hi guys/gals,
Now that the AX season is officially done up here in the north, it's time to start thinking about winter "improvements". At the beginning of this season I set my alignment/ride height/corner balance and just left it as is all year, focusing on driving. I'm contemplating trying to drop the front of the car down another inch in an attempt to transfer a little more of the weight up there. Right now I have about 2.5" of suspension travel in the front and don't want to sacrifice any of that.

In order to lower the car I would have to chop the struts and put shorten inserts in. To justify this, I wanted to verify that the camber curve would still be acceptable. I made a quick excell sheet graphing the camber gain as a function of A-arm deflection. Hopefully this will be useful to other people as well.

As of now, at rest the A-arms are at about +3 degrees. On the bumpstops they are at about -10. By lowering the car an inch they would start at about -3 degrees and assuming I cut the struts 1.5 inches on the bump stops would be at about -19.

I took some quick measurments on the car but they are by no means extremely precise.

Here is the graph...

[Brad Roberts]

But, I did that because I like to use suspension travel and think huge stablizer bars aren't the proper way to deal with roll. In my opinion this makes the car easier to drive.

For experienced drivers? Yes. For newbies? No. People who have ran go karts with no suspension travel can jump into anything with super high spring rates and small anti roll bars and drive the wheels off of it. Somebody who hasnt driven a stiffly sprung car and gets into one typically feels uneasy.

Everyone is different (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Now back on topic!

How does this help me go faster? I already know not to turn the wheel a whole lot or the car slows down. I actually teach people this for AutoX. I make them push a car.. then push a car with the wheel turned.

The numbers are great. I understand everything being said, but bottom line, how does it help us? If a Boxster strut can be used (easily actually) why wouldnt I just run a Boxster?


B

[jhadler]

The numbers are great. I understand everything being said, but bottom line, how does it help us? If a Boxster strut can be used (easily actually) why wouldnt I just run a Boxster?
B

'cause a boxter costs more???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

But really, if a Boxter strut can significantly improve the camber curve of the front, that would be way cool. In my class I'm allowed _any_ strut, so long as I don't alter pick-up points...

-Josh2