enkeivette
08-07-2008, 06:04 PM
And I think I know now why Skunk was so adament about using stiffer springs as opposed to using sway bars. I still don't think that he was right, but I think I understand his argument.
A huge part of handling is driver skill, more specifically, corner entry and corner exit speed. As many of you already know I'm sure, you never want to brake into a turn or throw the car into a turn too fast, or whip the wheel. You want slow gradual transition, and the fastest possible exit speed. Throwing the cars weight more quickly than necessary, by whipping the wheel causes less favorable weight transfer and therefore a greater load on the tires. This in turn will cause traction to suffer and therefore you will not be able to exit the corner as fast as you would had you entered the turn gradually.
The second erratic weight transfer is hard braking, a necessary evil that we have less control over. Obviously you can't brake slowly into the turn, while racing you should almost always be hard on the brakes or hard on the gas. So this is where Skunks argument comes into play. Having a higher spring rate will cause the car to dive less into a turn and therefore the erratic weight transfer on the tires will be less severe. Although, a roll bar does something that stiffer springs can't do, it links the suspension. The sway bar uses the opposing force of the outside arm to pull against the inside arm effectively increasing the spring rate. Springs cannot take advantage of this on their own.
So the problem now becomes, more spring rate or a stiffer roll bar? The book does call for a roll bar, in all applications (racing or street) so it's not a question of whether or not, just how much.
A huge part of handling is driver skill, more specifically, corner entry and corner exit speed. As many of you already know I'm sure, you never want to brake into a turn or throw the car into a turn too fast, or whip the wheel. You want slow gradual transition, and the fastest possible exit speed. Throwing the cars weight more quickly than necessary, by whipping the wheel causes less favorable weight transfer and therefore a greater load on the tires. This in turn will cause traction to suffer and therefore you will not be able to exit the corner as fast as you would had you entered the turn gradually.
The second erratic weight transfer is hard braking, a necessary evil that we have less control over. Obviously you can't brake slowly into the turn, while racing you should almost always be hard on the brakes or hard on the gas. So this is where Skunks argument comes into play. Having a higher spring rate will cause the car to dive less into a turn and therefore the erratic weight transfer on the tires will be less severe. Although, a roll bar does something that stiffer springs can't do, it links the suspension. The sway bar uses the opposing force of the outside arm to pull against the inside arm effectively increasing the spring rate. Springs cannot take advantage of this on their own.
So the problem now becomes, more spring rate or a stiffer roll bar? The book does call for a roll bar, in all applications (racing or street) so it's not a question of whether or not, just how much.