Suspension 101
06-30-2015, 10:12 AM
#1
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Suspension 101
Hey guys 
I recently came across a great article regarding suspension and would like to share it all with you!
http://dsportmag.com/the-tech/suspen...icle-handling/
So how do you pick the right tires? That’s a tough one. The tire industry seems determined to make tire choice as difficult as possible. Tire names are a meaningless alphanumeric soup. What’s the difference between a Nitto NT01, NT05, NT05R and NT555R? The reality is that they’re all very different tires distinguished by a few changes in numbers and letters. Closeup of Radial Tire
Sometimes you can judge a tire by its tread pattern. In general, performance tires will have bigger tread blocks, since they are physically stronger and less likely to be ripped apart by hard driving. Performance is fashionable, though, and despite all the hype about tread stability, water evacuation and the like, tread patterns are largely dictated by fashion. You’ll end up with some tires that are designed to look like race tires but wear like street tires. But, as soon as you write off tires like these as worthless, the tire companies will go and change them.
The third thing you need to know to make your car handle better is how to adjust its balance. This is not a really hard task if you remember that more load at one end of the car will make that end start sliding earlier. For example, a nose-heavy front-drive car would naturally have a lot of understeer, and this is something that you want to reduce. What you should do is think about the problem in reverse. Instead of trying to reduce understeer, you need to think about increasing oversteer.
Dampers are voodoo. Just like the black arts, they are both extremely powerful and virtually impossible to figure out without years of study. Good dampers can make a car ride and handle beautifully. Bad ones can render your every attempt at adjustment useless. Figuring out how to choose good dampers is even harder than figuring out tires, but it works on the same basic principle: Find some good dampers on someone else’s fast car and ask what they are and who tuned them. Then go buy your dampers from them.
This article is packed full of information, more than I can type out. I hope this helps out everyone!
I recently came across a great article regarding suspension and would like to share it all with you!
http://dsportmag.com/the-tech/suspen...icle-handling/
So how do you pick the right tires? That’s a tough one. The tire industry seems determined to make tire choice as difficult as possible. Tire names are a meaningless alphanumeric soup. What’s the difference between a Nitto NT01, NT05, NT05R and NT555R? The reality is that they’re all very different tires distinguished by a few changes in numbers and letters. Closeup of Radial Tire
Sometimes you can judge a tire by its tread pattern. In general, performance tires will have bigger tread blocks, since they are physically stronger and less likely to be ripped apart by hard driving. Performance is fashionable, though, and despite all the hype about tread stability, water evacuation and the like, tread patterns are largely dictated by fashion. You’ll end up with some tires that are designed to look like race tires but wear like street tires. But, as soon as you write off tires like these as worthless, the tire companies will go and change them.
The third thing you need to know to make your car handle better is how to adjust its balance. This is not a really hard task if you remember that more load at one end of the car will make that end start sliding earlier. For example, a nose-heavy front-drive car would naturally have a lot of understeer, and this is something that you want to reduce. What you should do is think about the problem in reverse. Instead of trying to reduce understeer, you need to think about increasing oversteer.
Dampers are voodoo. Just like the black arts, they are both extremely powerful and virtually impossible to figure out without years of study. Good dampers can make a car ride and handle beautifully. Bad ones can render your every attempt at adjustment useless. Figuring out how to choose good dampers is even harder than figuring out tires, but it works on the same basic principle: Find some good dampers on someone else’s fast car and ask what they are and who tuned them. Then go buy your dampers from them.
This article is packed full of information, more than I can type out. I hope this helps out everyone!
07-02-2015, 07:31 AM
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That's a great article. There are tons of factors that can impact which tire is right for you. How does the tire perform in inclement weather? What's the speed rating? How will it handle the track? What size will work with my setup? How long will it last? How does it perform at different temperatures?
Before you buy a set of tires, you should try and answer as many of these questions as possible so you can find the best match.
A suspension setup has many questions as well! Between spring preloads, damping rates, ride height, and alignment specs there's tons of questions to answer before picking a setup.
Before you buy a set of tires, you should try and answer as many of these questions as possible so you can find the best match.
A suspension setup has many questions as well! Between spring preloads, damping rates, ride height, and alignment specs there's tons of questions to answer before picking a setup.
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