soften rear suspension to reduce oversteer??
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From: Bedford, Tx
soften rear suspension to reduce oversteer??
I was reading some old post in this forum, and i read one that said if you have oversteer NOT due to too much acceleration (fishtailing) that you should soften ur rear suspension and make the front stiffer.. !!! i have some oversteer problems, but i don't see how it could be from the rear being too stiff.. the car rolls too much as it is around corners right before loosing grip.. but is it true that it might be caused by the rear being too stiff?? I was riding in my friends zo6 during an autocross and that car gripped like nothing else i have ever felt in my life, and had a VERY stiff front and rear, you felt every pepple on the ground when we were driving to line up..
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From: Albuquerque NM
Have someone watch the rear of the car during corner entry.
If the inside rear tire is lifting it is likely that the rear
anti roll bar is too stiff relative to the rest of the setup.
You might find Frikin as he seems pretty tuned in
If the inside rear tire is lifting it is likely that the rear
anti roll bar is too stiff relative to the rest of the setup.
You might find Frikin as he seems pretty tuned in
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From: So. Calif.
Thank you for the compliment Urbman, I'm flattered.( mostly happy to assist, its fun helping others learn.)
The best place to start is stiffer front springs. I personally like rock hard springs on a car and try to take out most of the sprung weight transfer with stiff springs, then do the fine tuning with swaybars.
If you are running relatively stock spring weights with large swaybars, what happens is your side to side weight transfer is reduced when zig-zagging through turns at a constant speed, but the second you speed up or slow down, the attitude of the chassis changes from front to rear weight transfer.
Stiffer spring rates front and rear control acceleration and deceleration weight transfer as well as side to side. And again, swaybars just fine tune this in corners.
There are other varibles to look at as well such as tire size front & rear/ tire quality front to rear / is the rear tire too wide for the rear wheel an if the throttle is unloaded on the corner causing the sidewall of the tire relax and wander/ Tire pressure / Shocks- with low rebound maybe unloading in the corner/ Etc.. Etc.. This could go on awhile.
Without seeing or better yet driving the car personally, it is very difficult to narrow down your specific need. the safest suggestion would be stiffer front springs. If the front springs are close to stock spring rate, stiffer ones would help prevent the car fom nose diving into a corner and unloading the rear tires. Especially the inner rear. This will make the *** end come around every time and even easier with a stiffer rear swaybar. ( If you want to experiment, try removing the rear bar temporarily and see the difference. The car will lean more but the rear will stick better, and the front will push or not want to turn.)
Do you know what trailbraking is? If not, this is the art of using both the gas and brake pedals simultaineously into and through a corner reducing weight tranfer. Rather than just switching from just gas to just brake to just gas.
Your friends Z06 is so state of the art electronically that the frikin car does this by itsself. They call it "Active Handling". It is tied into the brake/abs sensors on each wheel and will individually pulse each wheel AUTOMATICALLY to mantain stability of the chassis. These cars drive themselves and it is actually a little difficult to purposely get it to spinout.
For learning fun- Next time you visit a go-kart track, try stuffing a pad or two behind your back to transfer more weight onto the front tires. You will immediatly notice a difference in handling. I'm 6'4' and 235lbs but I can kick most peoples butts even on gokarts because I use my suspension knowledge there too. We have a higher speed indoor gokart track here in Orange Co. Ca. called Dromo One that I'm only .9 of a second of the track record as big as I am. Its hard to keep up with the little guys (145 lb ers)
The best place to start is stiffer front springs. I personally like rock hard springs on a car and try to take out most of the sprung weight transfer with stiff springs, then do the fine tuning with swaybars.
If you are running relatively stock spring weights with large swaybars, what happens is your side to side weight transfer is reduced when zig-zagging through turns at a constant speed, but the second you speed up or slow down, the attitude of the chassis changes from front to rear weight transfer.
Stiffer spring rates front and rear control acceleration and deceleration weight transfer as well as side to side. And again, swaybars just fine tune this in corners.
There are other varibles to look at as well such as tire size front & rear/ tire quality front to rear / is the rear tire too wide for the rear wheel an if the throttle is unloaded on the corner causing the sidewall of the tire relax and wander/ Tire pressure / Shocks- with low rebound maybe unloading in the corner/ Etc.. Etc.. This could go on awhile.
Without seeing or better yet driving the car personally, it is very difficult to narrow down your specific need. the safest suggestion would be stiffer front springs. If the front springs are close to stock spring rate, stiffer ones would help prevent the car fom nose diving into a corner and unloading the rear tires. Especially the inner rear. This will make the *** end come around every time and even easier with a stiffer rear swaybar. ( If you want to experiment, try removing the rear bar temporarily and see the difference. The car will lean more but the rear will stick better, and the front will push or not want to turn.)
Do you know what trailbraking is? If not, this is the art of using both the gas and brake pedals simultaineously into and through a corner reducing weight tranfer. Rather than just switching from just gas to just brake to just gas.
Your friends Z06 is so state of the art electronically that the frikin car does this by itsself. They call it "Active Handling". It is tied into the brake/abs sensors on each wheel and will individually pulse each wheel AUTOMATICALLY to mantain stability of the chassis. These cars drive themselves and it is actually a little difficult to purposely get it to spinout.
For learning fun- Next time you visit a go-kart track, try stuffing a pad or two behind your back to transfer more weight onto the front tires. You will immediatly notice a difference in handling. I'm 6'4' and 235lbs but I can kick most peoples butts even on gokarts because I use my suspension knowledge there too. We have a higher speed indoor gokart track here in Orange Co. Ca. called Dromo One that I'm only .9 of a second of the track record as big as I am. Its hard to keep up with the little guys (145 lb ers)
Last edited by AFrikinGoodTime; Jun 29, 2002 at 02:24 AM.
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From: Chillicothe, Ohio
I had this prob with two different cars. A 1964 chev, and a 1959 dodge. I installed air shocks in the REAR, and that cut out my steering problems. I kept the pressure in between 35-50 pounds giving what time of year it was.
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From: So. Calif.
Originally posted by original
I had this prob with two different cars. A 1964 chev, and a 1959 dodge. I installed air shocks in the REAR, and that cut out my steering problems. I kept the pressure in between 35-50 pounds giving what time of year it was.
I had this prob with two different cars. A 1964 chev, and a 1959 dodge. I installed air shocks in the REAR, and that cut out my steering problems. I kept the pressure in between 35-50 pounds giving what time of year it was.
Are we talking about trucks with leaf springs? Air shocks are terrible for performance.
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