Kinematics Webinar

Part 2

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

Donald Knuth

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 Introduction

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 Part 1 Review

We saw that kinematics

needs to be reliable
and avoid compliances.

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 Part 1 Review

A good kinematic is
adjustable for:

• Camber/Caster
• Roll center
• Ackermann
• Damper Motion Ratio
• ARB Motion Ratio

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 Part 1 Review
Rocker Axis
Wheelbase
Spring/Damper
F/R Track
ARB Position

Steering Caster
Rack Angle
Position KPI Angle

Inboard Outboard
Toe Link Pickup
Position points

Pitch
Ackermann
Center
Bump Steer
SVSAL

F/R Roll Outboard

Center Toe Link
F/R VSAL Position
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 Agenda
• Exercise review

• Reverse engineering

• Adjustability and kinematics at the track

• Improving an existing design

• Aftermarket parts

• Case Study: Pikes Peak Hillclimb

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 Exercise Correction
1) A long Front View Virtual Swing Arm Length gives you less camber variation in:
• Roll
• Heave Heave & Pitch
• Pitch
• Steering

For long FVSAL, the kinematic looks like a parallelogram, each side remains parallel to the
other. Camber does not change in heave or pitch, but will in roll.

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 Exercise Correction
1) A long Front View Virtual Swing Arm Length gives you less camber variation in:
• Roll
• Heave Steering
• Pitch
• Steering

Caster, Caster trail, KPI, KPI trail contribute to a “jacking effect” which create wheel vertical
displacement. So if steering creates wheel movement the FVSAL influence camber variation
in steering.

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 Exercise Correction
2) “Pro Ackermann is when the outer wheel steers more than the inner one.”
• True
• False

Pro Ackermann Anti Ackermann

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 Exercise Correction
3) Ackermann has to be decided based on:
• Steering Ratio
• Driver Feedback
• Tire Data
• All of the above

Toe-out is better in
fast corner!
Toe-in is better in
slow corner!

Ackerman is “adjustable” toe

that changes with steering
Pro Ackermann

This is not a recipe but what we usually hear from drivers.

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 Exercise Correction
4) At the same speed in the same corner, a FIAT 500 has more weight transfer than a
Ferrari F1.
• True 𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 × 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 × 𝑔 × 𝐶𝐺𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
• False 𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑕𝑡 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟 =
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑊𝑖𝑑𝑡𝑕

1100kg 640kg + Fuel

CG Height : High! CG Height : Low!

1400mm 1425mm
Essentially due to mass and center of gravity height, a Fiat 500 has more weight transfer than a F1.
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 Exercise Correction
5) King Pin Inclination angle influences:
• Roll Center Height
• Steering Torque Roll Center Height
• Caster Angle
• Camber Angle
• All of the above

King Pin Inclination does not directly change the roll center height.
However, changing the KPI means changing the wishbone length which influence the
roll center migration, this migration may happen both vertically and laterally.

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 Exercise Correction
5) King Pin Inclination angle influences:
• Roll Center Height
• Steering Torque
• Caster Angle
• Camber Angle
• All of the above
Steering Torque

As we saw previously, steering motion induces a jacking effect (Obvious on a GoKart).

One spring goes in compression and the other one goes in rebound which creates static
steering torque.
It also change the corner weight.

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 Exercise Correction
5) King Pin Inclination angle influences:
• Roll Center Height
• Steering Torque Caster Angle
• Caster Angle
• Camber Angle
• All of the above

The KPI induced jacking effect in steering.

This jacking effect directly change the caster angle as soon as the upper and lower
A-Arms are not parallel to each others.

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 Exercise Correction
5) King Pin Inclination angle influences:
• Roll Center Height
• Steering Torque Camber Angle
• Caster Angle
• Camber Angle
• All of the above

KPI angle is a way to adjust the camber in steering.

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 Exercise Correction
6) Heave motion may produce changes of:
• Camber Angle
• Caster Angle Camber Angle
• Roll Center height
• FVSAL
• Wheelbase length
• Track Width
• Steered Angle
• All of the above

Camber will change a lot in heave if the FVSAL is short.

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 Exercise Correction
6) Heave motion may produces a changes of:
• Camber Angle
FVSAL
• Caster Angle
• Roll Center height
• FVSAL
• Wheelbase length
• Track Width
• Steered Angle
• All of the above

In this example the instant center get closer, the FSAL get shorter.

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 Exercise Correction
6) Heave motion may produces a changes of: Wheelbase length
• Camber Angle
• Caster Angle
• Roll Center height
• FVSAL
• Wheelbase length
• Track Width
• Steered Angle
• All of the above

Depending on the wishbone orientation (side view), the wheelbase length will increase
or decreases for a given motion direction (heave up or down).

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 Exercise Correction
6) Heave motion may produces a changes of: Track Width
• Camber Angle
• Caster Angle
• Roll Center height
• FVSAL
• Wheelbase length
• Track Width
• Steered Angle
• All of the above

The track width changes in heave.

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 Exercise Correction
6) Heave motion may produces a changes of: Steered angle
• Camber Angle
• Caster Angle
• Roll Center height
• FVSAL
• Wheelbase length
• Track Width
• Steered Angle
• All of the above

In heave, steering may be created by bump steer.

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 Exercise Correction
7) Bump Steer may happen in:
• Roll
• Heave
• Pitch
• All of the above

Heave/Pitch

Roll

All of those motions create a vertical displacement of the upright, which may induce
bump steer.

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 Exercise Correction
8) For what reasons would you decide having short tracks width and wheelbase length?

“Fast response on tight courses.

Sacrifice stability for lower inertia and faster response.
Driver is able to take straighter line through slalom and series of tight corners.”

“- Inertia
- Greater rearward weight transfer under acceleration
- Ground clearance over crests
- Less frontal area
- Less weight
- Small trailers
- Lower unsprung mass“

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 Exercise Correction
9) For stability reasons, the front kinematics roll center needs to be:
• Higher than the rear one
• Lower than the rear one
• The same one as the rear one

The elastic weight transfer goes through the spring, damper, ARB.
This weight transfer is “slow” to happen, we could say that its duration last from the
starting of the weight transfer to the moment at which the car reach the maximum roll.

The geometric weight transfer goes through the wishbones.

This weight transfer is “fast” to happen, the only “elastic part” in this would transfer
would be the tire and the compliances. So its duration is about from the starting of the
weight transfer to the moment the tires reach their maximum slip angle...

The front axle is the one that start the weight transfer, so to be “in phase” with it, the
rear axle weight transfer need to be shorter. That is why we usualy have more an higher
roll center on the rear than on the front.

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 Exercise Correction
10) Track width variation depends on:
• Instant center vertical position
• Instant center lateral position
• Both

IC IC

IC

IC

Both the vertical and lateral position of the instant center influences the wheel trajectory
and so the track width variation.

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 Exercise Correction
11) According to the picture, increasing the distance “d” would:
• Minimize the bump steer
• Decrease the steering ratio
• Decrease the steering torque
• All of the above
ϴ2
ϴ1

d1

d1
As you increase the pitman arm length, you steer less which means that the steering ratio is
increased.
As you increases the steering ratio, you logically decrease the steering torque.
If you steers less you also logically decreases the bump steer sensitivity.
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 Exercise Correction
12) According to the picture, if the motion ratio is defined as “Wheel travel/Damper
Displacement”. To increase the motion ratio I can:
• Increase the blue edge
• Decrease the blue edge
• Increase the red edge
• Decrease the red edge

Increasing the red edge as well as decreasing the blue edge would minimize the damper
displacement (denominator) which would increase the motion ratio.

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 Exercise Correction
13) According to the picture, if this is the top view then the actuation system is a:
• Pushrod
• Pullrod

To compress the damper, the rod needs to be pulled, it is a pullrod!

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 Exercise Correction
14) According to the picture, if this is the baseline for which there is no bump steer.
Moving the red pickup point more toward the outboard would produce:
Rear View – Rear axle – Tie rod attached to the chassis.

• Braking Toe out – Power Toe out

• Braking Toe in – Power Toe in

The radius of the tie rod trajectory is smaller that the one of the wishbones, the tie rod will
be pulled, which would create Toe out.
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 Exercise Correction
15) According to the picture, the front suspension of this car uses:
• Pushrods
• Pullrods

This is the Indycar 2011 using pullrods on the front.

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 Exercise Correction
15) According to the picture, this car has:
• Pro Ackermann
• Anti Ackermann

This car has the steering rack in front of the front axle, and is using pro Ackermann.

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 Exercise Correction
17) Is Bump steer a good or a bad thing?

“Depends what you are doing. If you have a large amount of wheel movement then you
want to limit it as much as possible (off road vehicles). For most race cars, you would
want to design some adjustability in to add or remove some. Ideally you would want to
toe out the front on entry to get the car to rotate faster, but you would want toe in on the
rear to keep stability. On exit, you would want toe out on the rear to rotate out, and toe
in on the front to keep stability.”

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 Exercise Correction
18) What would you do to avoid bump steer?

“You need to be sure that control arms and tie rod have the same instant center and the
same trajectory at any moment.”

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 Exercise Correction
19) What are the advantages of a pullrod actuation system?

"- Lower center gravity, lower inertia.

- Reliable (a rod is always stronger in tension than in compression (buckling))
- Reduced non suspended mass“

"It offers less inertia, reduces the non suspended mass, and has a lower center of gravity.
It also allows to cover the dampers by the body and reduce the drag.“

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 Exercise Correction
20) Does it makes sense to have a kinematic that is not right/left symmetrical?

A lot of the answers were talking about Nascar, which is a good example.
However no track is fully symmetrical, so should a car be right/left symmetrical!

Below is a track map of Lime Rock, a track in USA.

Do you think that race cars should be symmetrical to be fast on this track?

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 Reverse Engineering
Measuring the pickup points
To make simulations on an existing kinematic, you need to know your pickup point location.

In some case you have CAD drawings in some other cases you do not and then you need to
measure them.

Several techniques are available for this job:

• Contact scanning (You put a robot arm on a point you
want to measure, it save this point) - CMM

• Non contact scanning (A laser scan a surface and save it)

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 Reverse Engineering
Measuring the pickup points

With a double beam laser, you can locate a point in its X and Y coordinates by
projection on a paper sheet.
Laser also measure the distance.

Pick-up point

Laser

X
Z

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 Reverse Engineering
Measuring the pickup points

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 Adjustability
5x5x5x5x2x2x2 5
 5000 combinations

How do we manage this? 5 5

How much adjustability

do we really need? 5 2

2 2

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 Adjustability
How do we decide how much adjustability we need?

 We test all possible combinations and see which ones could be

useful!

In a first step we move the inboard points up/down to find how much adjustability we need.

Lower Control Arm Inboard Z: 120, 130, 140, 150, 160 mm

Upper Control Arm Inboard Z: 380, 390, 400, 410, 420 mm

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 Adjustability
Let’s first look at the Roll Center Heights to understand which range of
adjustability we can expect!

Range: 100 mm

Range: 50 mm

It appears that adjusting the lower control arm is twice as powerful for adjusting the RCH.

If we want to be able to adjust the RCH +/- 25 mm, we would need to be able to move
the inboard pickup points up and down 10 mm

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 Adjustability
We want to be able to tune the FVSAL to adjust the camber gain.

The change in FVSAL is not nearly as predictable as the RCH.

For some configurations a small change in pickup point location has a large impact on the
FVSAL.

If we accidently position the upper control arm at 410 instead of 400, we have a
significantly different FVSAL!
 0.5 deg different camber angle at 60 mm heave

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 Adjustability
We can then look at moving individual pick-up points up/down. This will allow us
to adjust our pitch center (and hence our anti-effects!)

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 Adjustability
We can then look at moving individual pick-up points up/down. This will allow us
to adjust our pitch center (and hence our anti-effects!)

35.0%

30.0%

25.0%
Anti-Dive [%]

20.0%

15.0%

10.0%

5.0%

0.0%
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
RCH [mm]

If we are aiming for a RCH of 65 mm, the possible configurations here show a
good amount of anti-adjustability while the RCH is kept fairly constant.

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 Adjustability and accuracy
Some locations are obviously very sensitive. If we
spend many hours trying to optimize the pick-up
points, how do make sure they actually end up
where we think on the car?

Once the car has been built, the position of each

hard point can be measured using CMM

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 Adjustability
It can be difficult to keep track how different physical kinematic layouts and how they
affect important chassis parameters.

By creating fixed configurations, it is easy for both engineers and mechanics to select and
modify the suspension correctly.

D
A E
B F
C

G
H J
I K
L

Current config: BEHK RCH: 67 mm

Modified config: BEGJ RCH: 75 mm

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 Adjustability

A B C D RC [mm] Anti-squat
0 0 0 0 74.8 23%
Moving the inboard pickup point on
+10 0 0 0 70.8 27%
0 +10 0 0 71.3
Z will change both the Roll Center
18%
0 0 +10 0 85.7 1%
and Pitch center height.
0 0 0 +10 84.4 32%
-10 0 0 0 78.9 18%
0 -10 0 0 78.4 27%
+10
0 0 -10 0 63.9 32% +10 B 0
0 0 0 -10 65.2 1% 0 A -10
-10
+10 +10 0 0 67.2 23%
0 0 +10 +10 95.0 23%
-10 -10 0 0 82.4 23%
0 0 -10 -10 54.3 23%
-10 -10 -10 -10 51.8 24% +10 +10
+10 +10 +10 +10 98.0 23% 0 C D 0
-10 -10

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 Adjustability

P1 P2 P3 P4 RC [mm] Anti-squat
B E H K 74.8 23%
Moving the inboard pickup point on
A E H K 70.8 27%
B D H K 71.3
Z will change both the Roll Center
18%
B E G K 85.7 1%
and Pitch center height.
B E H J 84.4 32%
C E H K 78.9 18%
B F H K 78.4 27%
D
B E I K 63.9 32% A P2 E
B E H L 65.2 1% B P1 F
C
A D H K 67.2 23%
B E G J 95.0 23%
C F H K 82.4 23%
B E I L 54.3 23%
C F I L 51.8 24% G J
A D G J 98.0 23% H P3 P4 K
I L

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 Adjustability
BEIK
35%

30%

25%

Anti-Squat [%] 20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
RCH [mm]
BEHL
Using these kind of libraries it is easy for the engineers to make decisions on how to change
the kinematics. It is also easier for the mechanics to know what to change on the car.

 The kinematics layout “code” should be kept on the setup sheet, along with key numbers
Axle Config RCH [mm] FVSAL [m] Anti-dive Anti-squat
Front BEIK 63.9 3.4 32%
Rear ADLK 82.3 5.6 0%

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 Adjustability
Making some kinematic adjustments could require that the control arm eye-to-
eye distances change.

It is a good idea to measure these

things for every configuration so
that the control arms can be set to
the correct lengths every time a
configuration is changed.
-10 mm

If for this adjustment the eye-to-eye

length wasn’t changed – we would
involuntarily change a number of
parameters…

0.2 deg caster change

0.5 mm caster trail change
 5% steering torque change!

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 Adjustability
Other changes should be also be related to the physical changes.
Examples:
Camber change for each camber shim
 One 1 mm shim = 0.25 deg camber

Toe change with one “turn” on the tie-rod

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 Adjustability Challenge!

Can you make 4 changes on

your car such as: “1 more
camber shim” and “2 flats
shorter pull-rod” and then
know exactly what your camber
and ride height is?

More on this and tools and methods for working on the setup
pad will be presented in the Simulation/Race Prep Webinar!
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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer
Straight line Corner
On the front axle, bump
steer influence the toe
in straight line and the
Ackermann in corner.

To evaluate bump steer,

we impose heave
variation in straight line
and in corner.

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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer

Baseline

R/L Steering Gap : 0.70deg

R/L Steering Gap : 0.65deg

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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer

How do we decrease the bump steer?

? ?

? ?
? ?

? ?

In our case, to move the steering rack down we would have to cut into the chassis frame.

Moving the point upward would make the steering rack hitting the exhaust pipe. An
exhaust pipe modification is forbidden by regulation.

So our only option is to move the point sideward!

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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer
With a batch run we run some 10mm step iteration around our baseline

Iteration 6 is the best one so far (-20mm on Y)

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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer
We refine with 6 more iteration (2mm step) around the iteration “6” value

Iteration 3 is finally the best one (-18mm on Y)

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 Improving suspension
Bump Steer

Optimized

In this example we shortened the steering rack by 40mm.

R/L Steering Gap : 0.30deg

(-0.40deg)

R/L Steering Gap : 0.34deg

(-0.31deg)
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 Improving suspension
Roll Center Vertical migration in Heave

In this example the front and rear

roll center vertical migration in
heave is not the same, which
would change the balance in
heave.

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 Improving suspension
Roll Center Vertical migration in Heave

The reason for that is the difference of A-Arms length between front and rear axle.
Here is the overlay of the instant center position at initial position and with -60mm of heave.

Long A-Arms

Short A-Arms

The instant center vertical migration in heave is bigger and faster on short A-Arms.
Longer A-arms results in more “constant” kinematics which prevents drastic changes
in balance and driver feel.
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 Improving suspension
Roll Center Vertical migration in Heave

Now we only readapted the length

of the rear A-Arms, the slope of
the front and rear roll center
migration is very similar.

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio
A motion ratio can be:

Constant and linear

Non-constant and linear

Non-constant and non linear

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio
• Constant and linear

This is the most common option, with this one, if the spring rate is constant, then your
wheel rate is too.
• Non-constant and linear
With this option, your wheel rate will be non-constant too.
• Non-constant and non linear

With this option, your wheel rate will increase or decrease non linearly. You may want
this for chassis/platform control when having aero down force.

The aero force is proportional to the speed

squared, so to have a ride height proportional to
the speed, you need a wheel rate that increases
non linearly with the downforce/chassis position.

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio Motion Ratio Dynamic Ride Height

Total spring rate = 160 N/mm

Total spring rate = 160 N/mm

Total spring rate = 160 N/mm

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio

In the case you need a non linear motion ratio, you need to
understand what makes the motion ratio linear or not.

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio
Constant Motion Ratio

+10% +10%

𝟏𝟎 𝟏𝟏 𝟏𝟐. 𝟏
= 𝟏𝟎 = 𝟏𝟎 = 𝟏𝟎
𝟏 𝟏. 𝟏 𝟏. 𝟐𝟏

+10% +10%

If both the numerator and denominator increase For the motion ratio of the rocker, it is
or decrease, then the ratio remains constant. the same. If the Blue moment arm
increases or decreases the same way
as the red moment arm does, then
the motion ratio remains constant.

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio
Constant Motion Ratio

+50%
+50%

+50%

Rocker Angle

When the rocker makes 90deg (Pushrod, Pivot, Damper), and the pushrod and damper are
perpendicular to each other, then the variation of the blue moment arm is the same to the
one of the red moment arm.

In this case the motion ratio is constant.

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 Improving suspension
Motion Ratio
Non Constant Motion Ratio

+50%
+106%

+305%

+602%

Rocker Angle

When the rocker makes less than 90deg (Pushrod, Pivot, Damper), and the pushrod and
damper are perpendicular to each other, then the blue moment arm decreases faster than
the red moment arm.

In this case the motion ratio is not constant.

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 Improving suspension
Lowering the Car
A way to improve the grip of the car is to lower it.

When we lower a car, what happens is that we lower the center of gravity which result in
less weight transfer.

Due to its load sensitivity, a tire is less and less efficient, it loses grip (FY/FZ). So less weight
transfer means more grip.
CG height -60mm

CG @ 0.60m CG @ 0.54m
Max lateral acceleration = 1.71g Max lateral acceleration = 1.76g

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 Improving suspension
Lowering the Car
Lowering the car generally requires shorter springs (McPherson) or to shorten the rod length
(push/pull actuation).

What does this affect? Front Rear

-Roll center height : 69mm  -88mm 106mm  -69mm

-Camber angle : -1deg  -2.6deg -1deg  -2.8deg
-Caster angle : -8.5deg  -9.7deg -8.5deg  -9.7deg
-Track length : 799.1mm 797.2mm 800.5mm  798.0mm
-Wheelbase length : 2600.0mm  2600.4

The effects needs to be reviewed and classified on their importance.

Obviously the roll center height, camber and caster angle will play a more important role on
the handling of the car than few mm of change in the track width and wheelbase length.

The question now is how to treat the roll center height, camber angle and caster angle
change?

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 Improving suspension
Lowering the Car

Roll center height

Stock car

Roll Center height Front : 69mm

Roll Center height Rear : 106mm

With a McPherson suspension, the easiest way to lower the car is to put shorter springs.

Lowered Car

Roll Center height Front : -88mm

Roll Center height Rear : -69mm

The front roll center dropped by 157mm and the rear one by 175mm. This would widely
increase the elastic weight transfer, and decrease the roll stiffness. The car may feel lazy!
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 Improving suspension
Lowering the Car
An easy way to re-raise the roll center is to modify the upright.
For a McPherson suspension, we can extend the lower ball joint pin length. The effect is that
it lowers the bottom pickup point of the upright.

Lowered Car
Roll Center height Front : -88mm
Roll Center height Rear : -69mm

Lowered Car + Correction

Roll Center height Front : 0mm
Roll Center height Rear : 17mm
-30mm -30mm

Thanks to this modification we managed to raise the front and rear roll center by 88 and
86mm respectively.
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 Improving suspension
Extending the track width
As we said, the less the weight transfer, the better the grip!

Another way to decrease the weight transfer would be to extend the track width.

So what if we extend the front and rear track width by 50 mm/ 2 in ?

Fr. & Rr. Track : 1500mm Fr. & Rr. Track : 1550mm
Max lateral acceleration = 1.71g Max lateral acceleration = 1.73g

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 Improving suspension
Extending the track width
Extending the track width can be done by extending the hub or by extending the wishbones
length.

What does this affect?

Hub extension Wishbone extension

-KPI Trail : 56.1mm  81.1mm -RC Height : 10.9mm  10.5mm

-FVSAL : 4393mm  4604mm
A hub extension dramatically increases the KPI trail which means risk of high steering torque under braking.
If the wishbone extension is made without modification of the upright, then it slightly change the roll center
height and the FVSAL.
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 After Market parts

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 After Market parts
Roll Center Adjuster
These roll center adjuster shorten
the FVSAL and raise the RC height.

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 After Market parts
Camber Adjuster

There are many different products designed to

allow for increased negative camber and easy
camber adjustability.

Camber adjuster Nissan 350Z

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 After Market parts
Caster Adjuster

This plate adjust both

caster and camber.

How much does this

actually do?

Is it worth $280 (x2)?

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 After Market parts
Compliances

On a road car, compliances are not negligible, and a big part of them is coming from the
bushings. Soft bushings are used to make the ride smooth and comfortable.

Stiffer ones are available on the market.

Strut bar

Strut bars stiffens the chassis.

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 After Market parts
Track width adjuster

Track width adjusters can be used to change the track width.

Changing the wheel’s offset will also change the track width.

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 Case Study: Pikes Peak
19.99 km (12.42 miles)
156 turns

Vertical: 1440 m (4720 ft)

Finish elevation: 4300 m (14100 ft)

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 Case Study
• We’ve been given the task to modify the
suspension of street car to prepare it for the
Pikes Peak hill climb.

• The car is a Mazda Miata

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 Workflow
Measure points

Build model

Analyze model

Modify model

Design components

Test it  Win the race!

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 Front Suspension
• Double A-Arm
• Direct actuation
• U-bar type ARB

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 Rear Suspension
• Double A-Arm
• Direct actuation
• U-bar type ARB

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 Initial Analysis
• Front RC: 42 mm
• Rear RC: 57 mm

• FVSAL Front: 1.9 m

• FVSAL Rear: 2.1 m

• Front Caster trail: 8.0 mm

• Front KPI trail: 8.5 mm

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 Improving performance
1. Lowering the car
 Pikes Peak is now paved all the way to
the top. Not very bumpy!
 Lower CGH helps cornering
performance

2. Making the car wider

 Less weight transfer helps grip
 Car is pretty narrow stock

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 Lowering the car 50 mm

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 Lowered 50 mm
• Front RC: -25 mm -67 mm
• Rear RC: -60 mm -117 mm

• FVSAL Front: 1.3 m -0.6 m

• FVSAL Rear: 2.1 m +/- 0 m

• Front Caster trail: 7.5 mm -0.5 mm

• Front KPI trail: 8.6 mm +0.1 mm

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 Issues!
• We want to keep the same balance of the car
as the stock car.
Fix Roll Center locations!

• Getting more camber is good (1.8 deg more)

• The changes in steering geometry are very

small when we lower the car.

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Front
– Option 1: Adjust lower inboard points
– Option 2: Modify/change upright

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Front
– Option 1: Adjust lower inboard points

Moving pick up points up 15 mm helps

to bring the RC up to where it was

Bump steer is actually slightly improved!

 Lowering the car so much moved the
suspension away from its “optimized”
design

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Front
– Option 2: Modify/change upright

To bring the RC back up we need to

increase the height of the upright with
about 25 mm.
 Not enough room in the wheel!

When we are moving the point down,

we are also reducing caster. Caster is
reduced 0.5 deg (from 4.5 to 4 deg).
 Not good for camber when steering!

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Rear
– Option 1: Adjust lower inboard points
– Option 2: Modify/change upright

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Rear
– Option 1: Adjust lower inboard points

We can move the pickup points up 25 mm

 It’s not enough, RCH = 3 mm

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 Bringing RC back up!
• Rear
– Option 1: Adjust lower inboard points

We can move the pickup points up 25 mm

 It’s not enough, RCH = 3 mm

We have to change the upright also!

 Aftermarket upright helps to get the RC up to 49 mm
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 New/Old Kinematics

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 New/Old Kinematics

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 Make car wider
• The wheelbase can be increased using wheel
spacers or wheels with different offset.

How much more KPI trail can the driver handle?

Test!

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 Case Study Summary
Documentation

Mechanical reliability Regulations

Design components

Test it  Win the race!

Adjustability Cost/Time Budget

Driver skill
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 Kinematics Mistakes

The pullrods are bending the rocker plate! (That is probably why it need to be that thick!)
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 Kinematics Mistakes
Nyloc nuts exposed to
brakes temperature?
A bolt?

What about tightening

the wheel?

Tightening the wheel would probably bend the brake disc.

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 Kinematics Mistakes
Weak!
Rod-end in bending

Massive!

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 Kinematics Mistakes

What path would the force

like to take?
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 Kinematics Mistakes

A ?

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 Summary
• Same theory applies when designing a suspension
from scratch as when we are modifying an existing
design.

• Adjustability is helpful when we are tuning the car.

But we need to have the proper documentation,
procedures and tools.

• When modifying a suspension, we need to

understand what analyze the same things as we do
for a brand new design  Compromises

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 Thank you!
• An evaluation form will be sent out, please complete it to help
us improving these webinars.

• Results from the exercises will be sent out early next week.

• The next webinar will be on Simulation and Race Prep and will
take place in mid-October.
 Sign up for all webinars this fall for $995 (not too late!)

• Questions/Comments:
[email protected]

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