Hi All,
I was at a race event on Sunday and there were a few corners that had bumps/ripples in the carpet on corner entry. I normally have the car set up so that the front end is running violet springs and the rear end yellow springs. I run a one-way and this combination gives me just the right amount of oversteer on corner entry to keep the car powering through. I also run downstops of 6 on the front and 4 on the rear.
Now the problem on Sunday was that upon hitting the bumps, whilst turning in (not using brakes because of the one-way), the car tended to flip round completely causing all the corner speed to be scrubbed off.
The first thing I tried was to soften the front end up so that it absorbed the bumps better and this helped a little, I then softened the rear up and lowered the roll centre to try and encourage some more rear bite into the corner. Again that helped, but I couldn't be aggressive entering the corner and I was losing a little bit of time because of it.
As I was driving home I remembered the droop and started thinking about the effect that would have on a car after hitting a bump. My reasoning ended up with the conclusion that if the suspension travel is limited in its downward travel, the bump is big enough and the momentum sufficient, the tyres will actually lose contact with the surface completely, thus producing the uncontrollable rotation of the car.
Does that sound right? And as such, in the case of bumps, should the droop be removed to allow the suspension and tyres to ride the bump and remain in contact with the surface?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Tim.
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