without knowing anything about the suspension characteristics it is not easy to conceive what would be the ideal setup ,but generally a formula ford is a non aero car and so the idea of keeping platform stable (no droop),loads of preload seems to be unnecessary as this aims at aero platform stability I would say.Alonso wrote:Evening guys.
We went testing today with the duratec and it was pretty good, started of by running 550 front rates and 550 rear rates. we had understeer but my driver likes an understeering car. Just a little worried had to dial out alot of preload on the front to get it better under turn in and found that it squated a little more than it should under power. Was thinking maybe i should go to the 650 rear spring and leave the 550 front that will give me better front end and less squate on power. Any ideas???
thanks
Alonso
so the real point is where are the pros and minuses of softening or stiffening the
Still I would have started softening the rear before going up on springrate on the front .that seems to me at least mor elogical ,as you had a setup wich was suiting the driver with the soft front...wich was already understeering.
Of course the question still is :does it lack grip because the tyres are underworked (colder than the rears) or low grip because they are overworked (hotter than the rears)..for both the cure would be opposite direction ... so from were I stand I cannot state if softer or stiffer cures the understeer.
springrates and of course my first aim would be to look if i can produce front and rear identical tyre temps constantly with my driver and in short as well as longruns.this will help to maintain balance from start to finish pushing or not quite being at 100% and will give you the possibility to cover distance in the shortest time.
It all is about tyre management every time.you need a good quick tyre pyrometer and a very precise inflation gauge and one guy taking notes of tyre temps in/ middle /outside ,cold and hot pressures ambient +track temp everytime the car turns a wheel at anger and write down to start building up a data base.This is first objective every time the car stops in the pits!!!!
the driver will always want the car stiffer than it needs to be ,as the feedback is getting clearer with stiffness in general ,but stiff is not really equal to ultimate speed ...at least in non aero cars...
It seems odd to me why the lighter car would want to have a stiffer set of springs
if nothing else changed but car weight .
but wait: you have surely changed the weight distribution as you have removed all weight from the back ,so the weight distribution might have gone quite markedly forward? this could be as much as 3% of static move to the front...with the same
tyre ..only accounting for the 35 kilo difference... and how moved the CG height with the lighter engine ? More questions than answers at this time ,but as a first guess WHEEL rates front and rear should now be closer to each other than before .