v8kid
|
| posted on 11/5/08 at 11:06 PM |
|
|
I recall an article with the designer of the Juno racecar, certainly an effective car, stating that the inner suspension mounting points came with the
gearbox and there was little advantage in redesigning the box casting just to get the mounting pints where Juno wanted them.
This certainly seems to bear out Syd's view. I'm not inferring the mounting points are not important just that they were probably right
enough in Juno's case, by evolution if nothing else, and that the packaging considerations were more important.
Extending this arguement surely it is valid to say that if there is only a small deviation between calculation methods - does it matter.
Course that opens up the question of what is small!
At the F1 prctice yesterday We saw Lewis Hamilton, with all the computing power available to them, having to make a decision, quite a big decision, on
the tyres to use based on his intuition - the fact he got it wrong is neither here nor there the issue is his opinion was the deciding factor. Most of
us are not in that league and the issue for us is if they can't get it right with thier computing power we have no chance outside the basic
setup to get it right using calculation alone..
So if we get the basics right we can muck about on the road/track with springs bars dampers etc to get the ballance right but one thing it is really
difficult to change significantly after the car is built is where we have put the weight. I guess I have taken the long way round to restate low and
central is the most important thing.
Finally if you need more convincing most rally cars used to mount the communications box on the roll bar cos it was convenient to plug into it. Works
cars don't they put it on the deck - guess why.
Cheers All
David
|
|
|
|
|
rpmagazine
|
| posted on 12/5/08 at 01:27 AM |
|
|
I think we should differentiate between a racecar which only sees a track and a car that also see road use. Having spoken to a designer Ford's
most recent sportscar, I was surprised at the months of effort that went into designing the suspension in Adams, which was then backed up with months
of testing, particularly of different tyres. Again we get back to 'fit for purpose'. In designing and building our own cars we trade some
aspects of performance, most notably NVH and safety, for those aspects we want more of.
I think too that the amount of effort that goes into designing also reflects the skills and resources that the racecar manufacturer has at its
disposal. In this respect we should be cautious in interpreting the magazine comments from Juno.
[Edited on 12/5/08 by rpmagazine]
www.racemagazine.com.au
|
|
|
rpmagazine
|
| posted on 18/5/08 at 11:30 AM |
|
|
Interesting
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/allarticles/257234/sportscar-suspension-design.html
www.racemagazine.com.au
|
|
|
