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  • curtis73

    Jan. 14, 2012 2:41 p.m. curtis73 SuperDork

    Let's say a person were building a car that will never handle really well. Focus will be on ride quality and weight handling. I don't necessarily want to destroy handling or make it dangerous but I have a strange idea.

    What would happen if I took a normal double-A arm front suspension and made the arms equal length and parallel? The IC would be infinite and there would be no camber curve. How much would it suck? What would be different between that suspension and a solid axle, other than the cross camber during articulation?

  • Curmudgeon

    Jan. 14, 2012 4:35 p.m. Curmudgeon SuperDork

    Well, if all the pivot points are parallel, you will have zero negative camber gain in a turn. The outside tire now has positive camber in relation to the ground which has the unfortunate effect of moving the contact patch of the tire off of the tread and onto the outside sidewall. Not good. The inside tire does exactly the opposite, it has negative camber and transfers the contact patch to the inside sidewall. Also not good.

    If you can somehow control body roll really carefully, you might be able to overcome some of this. But the tire's natural ability to flex will still cause contact patch problems. Of course if you never turn you never have a problem.

  • curtis73

    Jan. 14, 2012 6:28 p.m. curtis73 SuperDork

    The inside negative camber shouldn't be an issue. Most factory cars have negative camber on the inside in addition to body roll. Not that its a good thing, but as long as handling isn't a concern it shouldn't be a tire wear issue. The design I'm contemplating would actually be an improvement over (for instance) a GM G-body... at least as far as the inside tire is concerned.

  • ProDarwin

    Jan. 14, 2012 6:38 p.m. ProDarwin SuperDork

    Somebody has to ask...

    Why?

    I think it would suck, but still be better than some strut suspensions.

  • curtis73

    Jan. 14, 2012 6:53 p.m. curtis73 SuperDork

    ProDarwin wrote:

    Somebody has to ask...

    Why?

    For now the answer is "because I want to."

    Long story short, this may end up being a vehicle that will have to operate at multiple ride heights. I imagine that this type of suspension would have more drawbacks than I'd like to deal with, but thought i'd get your inputs.

 
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