Suspension Design

[intrepid44]

Would this actually work?... or be any good for that matter.



The idea being that it reduces weight, and acts like a ARB as well, obviously the rest will be double wishbone design, and yes my paint skills are that bad.

[intrepid44]

Well after reading a bit more about monoshock design, they seem to provide little mechanical grip, and are good for use in aero cars (Dallara tested them on their Indy car). Seeing as though it is going to be used for Autocross, I think we will use a more conventional design.

[intrepid44]

Project 644 said:

intrepid44 said:

Well after reading a bit more about monoshock design, they seem to provide little mechanical grip, and are good for use in aero cars (Dallara tested them on their Indy car). Seeing as though it is going to be used for Autocross, I think we will use a more conventional design.

You are thinking of suspension in the wrong way. Suspension does not provide grip, the tyres provide the grip. The idea of suspension is to utilise the available grip of the tyre by keeping the optimal contact patch with the ground at any time. Monoshock has been successful in non-aero applications (RF92 formula ford) but it tends to work better on smoother tracks. Also the short distance travelled by the pivot in roll tends to be difficult to control. For an Autocross application I would try and keep it as simple and as light as possible.

I know that it is the tyres that ultimately provie the grip and that the suspension is used to keep the tyre in contact with the tarmac. I worded that wrongly, I guess. Also I read that the monoshock worked well with the FF due to it having a relatively wide track. Is monoshock still used sucessfully in other none-aero applications?

And I agree it probably is best to keep it simple, and as light as posible. That's why we were thinking of a monoshock setup, but having looked into it a little further other teams that have gone the monoshock design seem to have been less than sucessful, although I guess that could be due to other reasons.