I can only answer a few of these questions, but Im sure the other guys can help you out with the rest....
Toe in: the amount that the front wheels are permanently turned into the centre of the chassis like /--||--\ (Does the pic make sense?) I think this makes the car a bit less stable in a straight line, but helps it get around tight corners a bit better. On some road cars they have toe out, which is the opposite and makes the car easier to drive on the highway.
Bump/Rebound Damper: On a every car, the dampers are set up to have different characteristics on compression (bump) and expansion (rebound), The mech guys will understand this better, but i think it has to do with different fluid velocities in and out of the damper. Anyway, this means that the car can be set up to be very hard but have the rebound slow (which i think is totally stupid, can anyone tell me why?) or have it take the shock with soft bump characteristics, but return the wheel to its original place quickly (fast rebound).
oops..
Toein front edge of tyre is closer to the chassis centreline as rear edge of the tyre.
This gives straightline stability,especially at the rear you always try to have some toe in because of that,it helps also with braking stability.
Toe in puts the outer tyre in a corner into a slipangle earlier as the tyre is more steered into the corner than the centreline of the car(can you follow)
this early rise in slipangle gives you a good smooth initial response but
the tyre slipangle increases dramatically in the corner and the whole thing fires back ,giving you excessive slip and sliding (understeer)
Toe out will giveyou less slipangle ,but a quite unstable feeling if excessive,especially on uneven underground and longitudinal ripples in track surface the car will have it´s own mind where it wants to go.
Cornering will have a slow turnin and as soon as you get some slipangle the car darts into the corner.
You have to compromise and adjust for dynamic/deflection changes of toe in or out to arrive at the best static toe.One really important aspect of toe characteristioc is bumpsteer,the change of toein/toe out of the wheel when going in Bump or droop.
Damper explanation to follow,sorry i´m too busy at this time but this all needs clarification and correcting
just alittle teaser:
damping will influence the cars behaviour only when forces are changing.
you may divide damping characteristics into lowspeed and high speed damping.
The high(shaft)speed damping refers to the car hitting a bump(kerb for example) or uneven tracksurface.
The low speed damping refers to very slow dampershaft movements,as you turn in in cornering,lift of the thrrottle ,apply the brakes etc.
As we don´t want to have big vertikal movements of the aeroplatform the lowspeed damping is of major importance to control body roll.with stiff lowspeed settings you can control the initial input when turning the steering wheel quite well ,and delay (damp) the forces that build up.Low speed damping is a very strong instrument to time the events and you can easily change the cars behaviour on turn in or exit from understeer to oversteer and vice versa.
This enables you to run softer springs,as you don´t need the springs to control body roll to the same extend as in former times.
but thats just the very beginning and you have to consider a lot mor easpects when it comes to damping.
Marcush explained toein rather well. Basically on a road car they are all setup for a small amount of toein. It creates a stable platform in a straight line. When the corner enters BUMP.(tire moving up) the toe angle changes slightly. This is what causes straight line instability in a toe-out setup. Formula cars are always set for a slight amount of toe-out at the front and toe-in at the rear. Rear stable / front unstable so the car rotates faster in the corner.
BUMP is the tire moving up- Compressing the shock. Rebound is the opposite. Tire moving down or the shock extending. Where there are shocks on formula cars the settings are altered to control how the car handles the change in attitude of the car. To hard a BUMP setting will make the car jumpy and the tires loose compliance with the road. Too soft and the chassis can bottom out. The slow speed settings are more for fine tuning and chassis attitude. Spring rates also have a big influence on the shock/damper settings as well.
packers restrict the movement of the damper/shock.
Suggested reading. Carrol smith Engineering to WIN, Tuning to WIN.
