Hi, Everybody.
It's been a while since I've messed with Car suspension setups. If you have two vehicles that are the same but one has soft springs and one has stiff springs, which one will add grip to the tires sooner, or to use a karting term, fire the tires off quicker? What say you?
Depends on your dampers.
The stiffer suspension should load up the tires faster.
Within reason. If the suspension doesn’t move, neither does the tire and now every bump will cause a tire to become unloaded due to the chassis bouncing back up. Stuff is ok as long as you aren’t bouncing.
As with all things suspension related, the tires are the most important thing. How stiff the springs can be is mainly a function of what your tires will allow.
There are other things to consider too, their contribution to roll stiffness is an important factor. There are many cars out there that can be faster with much stiffer springs than they really should have because their increased roll stiffness avoids undesirable camber changes.
But beware because stiffer springs don't always mean faster. Sometimes it can just make the car harder to drive fast!
In reply to freetors :
Yep. The stiffer the springs on my celica (2400lbs, Mac strut) the more understeer I got. I also Found I couldn’t get the dive needed when braking to rotate.
I think softer set up gets tires up to temp quicker but will also cause the car to lean more, which unloads the inside tires and results in less overall grip. Locally, we have a bumpy low grip asphalt surface for autocrossing and soft suspension works well here. At Nationals with its high grip, smooth concrete surface, the same set up wallows around and won't hook up. You have to stiffen things up to take advantage of it. Also, even on a high grip surface, if it rains you need to soften things to get the most grip. Karting is like that, too. You start on a green track with lower tire pressures, raised Cg and more caster then as the track grips up you raise pressures and lower Cg and reduce caster.
Quoting the inestimable Mr. Tanner, “Suspension needs to suspend.”
It's a compromise . Going too stiff can ruin a good handling chassis.
The right answer is "the right amount."
Stiffer will transfer weight quicker, but may not transfer enough.
Suspension stiffness does not change the amount of weight transferred, only the manner in which it is transferred. Total weight transfer is purely a function of center of gravity height, track width or wheelbase, vehicle mass, and the amount of lateral or longitudinal acceleration.
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