You can determine the roll center by drawing three straight lines. In our examples, we’re interested in the car’s handling characteristics from side to side, so we’ll determine the locations of the roll center and center of gravity as if we’re looking at the car head-on. Keep in mind that the roll center only affects the direction of weight transfer, but not how much weight is transferred. There is a roll center at the front of the car and one at the back of the car, creating a roll axis between the two roll centers. The roll center is the point at which the car rolls side to side, affecting how weight shifts through the suspension. The suspension geometry determines the roll center and center of gravity. Many suspension upgrades are sold on the basis of reducing body roll, however, you should also take into account a few other items. Many of these handling characteristics are first determined by the suspension geometry, and how it relates to the car’s roll center and center of gravity. So before you start throwing parts and setup changes at your car, take a step back and analyze the problem and what components directly affect the cause. Why does the car understeer or oversteer? If the problem is rooted in changing camber angles as the body rolls, adjustments to the damper valving only cures symptoms as opposed to solving the problem. The same five degrees of camber on any street car only makes its handling worse.īefore making tweaks to your car’s suspension setup, you should first know how the changes affect the car’s chassis, weight jacking and alignment. For example, a Formula One car’s five degrees of front negative camber works very well for that car’s suspension geometries and stiffness. Different vehicle chassis and suspension setups call for different adjustments. Lowering your car, adding negative camber, installing stiffer springs, installing thicker sway bars or stiffening damper valving does not inherently improve handling. Text by Cameron Parsons // Illustrations by Paul Laguetteįrom street performance to even some upper levels of racing, there are still far too many examples of monkey see, monkey do. In this suspension tech feature, we’ll examine roll center, center of gravity, and wheel alignments in relation to improved handling performance. Although these upgrades usually improve handling, the effectiveness of the system also depends on the lengths, angles and linking points of the suspension system. Most typically focus on stiffer dampers, springs and sway bars when upgrading the suspension. Perfecting a suspension system is a daunting task, as it is arguably the most complicated system of any performance vehicle. Obtaining peak performance requires adjustments, tuning and an understanding of how the pieces work in conjunction with each other. J ust like with a turbo upgrade, you can’t expect to bolt on new suspension hardware and realize gains right out of the gate.
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