Suspension Voodoo

[wepsbee]

I am LOLing...This is a great thread of all kinds of various items.

Dan the bottom line is your dollar will determine how fast you can go and how technical you want to be. Greg is 100% in relation to struts. They suck in every possible way and you will need to run high spring rates to make it work which in turn requires expensive shocks.

Dave has a totally different suspension design that is much, much better than struts.

A arm cars can spend less to get the same performance on struts because its a superior design. But even A arm FWD cars need big money shocks and springs when you get to the pointy end of the field.

I will be delivering my car to Matt on Sat. I will check with him and have the suspension looked at for suggestions. I am checking with Koni for max springs rates for the struts I have. I imagine stiffer springs are going to result in a car that will have to be learned how to drive.
All, thanks for the input, this forum really helps!!

[rsportvolvo]

Stiff springs on a strut to reduce movement are only required IF it is outside of the operating window. That is dependent on your exact strut layout.

Some struts have a lot of wiggle room within the ITCS. VW's are screwed as are most cars with bolt on struts. Cars with integrated struts have basically a blank check (BMW E30).

For struts:

1. Within the ITCS regulations design a strut to work within it's limited window.
2. If 1. is not feasible then mask the struts deficiencies with stiff springs to limit movement on a lowered car or run a lighter spring and an ARB on a higher ride height car.
3. Buy top notch dampers for item 1. and good enough dampers for option 2.

If you run really stiff springs it's a waste of money to buy high end shocks as they don't move much (dampers only work when moving). Also chassis flex and component stiffness enter into the equation and the benefits will be tough to realize. If you do run a stiff spring get as big a damper piston as you can, like 45mm and up. The stock Bilstein's 36mm won't work as well.

Note: The Pratt & Miller designed GTO-R's and GXP-R's use @ 400 lb/in springs on an SLA (A-arm) suspension with a HUGE ARB (anti-roll bar). That low of a wheel rate seemed to work quite well.

This is just my intellectual masturbation on the subject.