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Re: digressive valving and larger sway bars Posted by Justin VanAbrahams [Email]  (#32) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Justin VanAbrahams) on Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:18:15
In Reply to: Re: digressive valving and larger sway bars, SRS900S, Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:30:42 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The way you ideally control body roll is with high spring rates - and really nothing else. In the land of street-driven cars, however, optimally high spring rates would make for a very uncomfortable ride. To combat that, manufacturers use less-than-optimal spring rates, but you get to keep your fillings. With lower spring rates, however, you get body roll which reduces to feeling of control. Swaybars are a band-aid measure to control body roll, but they don't functionally improve cornering (unless we're talking about aero or exit grip, which is another matter)... they cause the suspension to fight itself, reducing grip in corners.
If you want to fight body roll the right way, get stiffer springs. If you don't want to totally compromise the ride you can gain some improvement with progressive or digressive shocks - you'll get some initial roll, but the non-linear valving should help things from getting out of control. If you don't want to affect the ride at all, sway bars are where you go.
Understeer & oversteer are functions of balance. In the simplest of terms, these conditions are induced by an axle approaching (and subsequently exceeding ;) its limits of grip. When the front end loses grip before the rear, you get understeer. When it's the rear before the front, you get oversteer. Stiffening up the rear end with a sway bar will reduce rear grip and introduce oversteer. The opposite is also true.
If we're talking about a c900, I would be careful about messing with rear grip. IME, the c900 is a little prone to snap oversteer - everything is fine until it's not. I wouldn't want to do anything to further upset things back there - the suspension really isn't the best design in the world. If you truly want to improve the cornering characteristics and balance of a c900, I would look into stiffer springs, proper shocks, and an aggressive alignment. That will reduce roll, improve cornering balance, and improve turn-in.
(Of course, don't overlook tires and tire pressure - good tires with nice sidewalls and proper pressure balance makes a significant impact!)
(And, please bear in mind I'm trying to keep this simple - there are a bazillion variables in suspension and sway bars play an important role in a variety of circumstances - I'm trying to keep things in terms of "a street car that goes to the track sometimes" not full-on race car suspension design ;)
posted by 12.195.130...
, Tue, 13 Aug 2013 20:29:37, Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:18:15 <-- Viewing This Message
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