Reproducing Mclaren's suspension with air dampers?
Discussion
My idle musing for the last few years has been driven by two dreams - building my own house, and building my own car.
Both completely from scratch to my design.
For the car, it's always been a single seater designed for the road (properly) - very lightweight, not much power, good suspension travel and comfort, enough luggage capacity to carry an overnight bag. Influences are the 250F, BAC Mono, Sub3 wheeler, LCC Rocket, etc. A car that mixes the practicality I need (not much) with good acceleration, bags of fun and cheap running costs.
Know absolutely nothing about suspension design (or much of the other stuff), so instead of learning about it, I'm going straight for emulating the Mclaren roadcar setup, which gives massive comfort with no anti roll bars, yet controls lean well (a while ago it was gonna be a Formula Renault single damper setup with rotary motorbike steering damper taking the place of the ARB).
Does this by linking the hydraulic chambers of the dampers so that single wheel movement is free, and roll forces are resisted.
http://m.caranddriver.com/features/the-anti-anti-r...
Got me thinking, whilst tuning the air forks on my mountain bike.
Would it be feasible to link the positive/negative chambers of air springs each corner to provide the same effect?
The Mclaren has clever hydraulic accumulators and nitrogen held behind clever membranes and stuff - but one of the benefits of air shocks I believe is the natural rising rate they provide, which I figure if linked would provide the necessary roll control whilst maintaining single wheel movement? Might need flow control valves I suppose as the negative preloaded chamber is normally a fraction of the pressure of the compression one. Can't be that hard shirley?
Should Mclaren hire me as the brains guy?
Oh, if the answer is 'No Sway, you're being a fecking eedjit' that's fine, but feel free to improve my understanding of how suspension design works - you never know, in fifteen years time I might be heading towards you in a car I've bolted together with a proprietary mix of Wrigleys and Uhu...
Both completely from scratch to my design.
For the car, it's always been a single seater designed for the road (properly) - very lightweight, not much power, good suspension travel and comfort, enough luggage capacity to carry an overnight bag. Influences are the 250F, BAC Mono, Sub3 wheeler, LCC Rocket, etc. A car that mixes the practicality I need (not much) with good acceleration, bags of fun and cheap running costs.
Know absolutely nothing about suspension design (or much of the other stuff), so instead of learning about it, I'm going straight for emulating the Mclaren roadcar setup, which gives massive comfort with no anti roll bars, yet controls lean well (a while ago it was gonna be a Formula Renault single damper setup with rotary motorbike steering damper taking the place of the ARB).
Does this by linking the hydraulic chambers of the dampers so that single wheel movement is free, and roll forces are resisted.
http://m.caranddriver.com/features/the-anti-anti-r...
Got me thinking, whilst tuning the air forks on my mountain bike.
Would it be feasible to link the positive/negative chambers of air springs each corner to provide the same effect?
The Mclaren has clever hydraulic accumulators and nitrogen held behind clever membranes and stuff - but one of the benefits of air shocks I believe is the natural rising rate they provide, which I figure if linked would provide the necessary roll control whilst maintaining single wheel movement? Might need flow control valves I suppose as the negative preloaded chamber is normally a fraction of the pressure of the compression one. Can't be that hard shirley?
Should Mclaren hire me as the brains guy?
Oh, if the answer is 'No Sway, you're being a fecking eedjit' that's fine, but feel free to improve my understanding of how suspension design works - you never know, in fifteen years time I might be heading towards you in a car I've bolted together with a proprietary mix of Wrigleys and Uhu...
Edited by Sway on Friday 9th January 19:41
Troubleatmill said:
Related - but worth a read...
http://www.daxcars.co.uk/cc-ar.html
Can't figure out where the springs/dampers are mounted, but sounds like the sort of thing I want! http://www.daxcars.co.uk/cc-ar.html
Rawwr - you said something similar to me when we met at the MBW Sunday service at the end of 2013...
Sway said:
Troubleatmill said:
Related - but worth a read...
http://www.daxcars.co.uk/cc-ar.html
Can't figure out where the springs/dampers are mounted, but sounds like the sort of thing I want! http://www.daxcars.co.uk/cc-ar.html
http://www.walker-partnership.com
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