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If this is a FSAE car you really want to take a good look at tire compounds/carcase construction and also get some pressure sensitive paper and experiment with various tires to see which give the largest foot print for the loads you will be seeing. Much is to be gained in these areas (wink...

From my experience, as long as you re-tune the vehicle and change to tires that are able to get up to operating temperature with the given loads place on the them, the vehicle will keep getting faster or as you put it "handle better." It is possible to get out of the operating range of the...

Yes, the only way to change the antisquat is by either changing the angle of the LCA or by changing the CG height (unlikely). Like I said, put some wheelie bars on the car and go do some testing. Play with the angle of the LCAs, tire pressures, and with shock bump settings. That should get you...

See Jason's earlier post, but I believe you want to replace the vertical line in the layout with one that goes through you front TA intermediate link (its two pivot point). I'm not exactly sure what your front mount looks like, but if you could post a link to a picture of it, I could give you...

Jason, Yes, I agree. I wanted to start with the basics first.

I have layed out the TA geometry for your reference. Assume the numbers to be arbitary. Pay particular attention to the vertical line at the TA front mount, the IC location, and the line from the rear tire contact patch through the IC that extends up to the front axle (this is how the antisquat...

I don't understand you argument about the lines not intersecting. Lines (in mathematics) are infinitely long and will always intersect unless they are parallel. The point of intersection is your rear suspension IC in the sideview. I don’t understand your question about front or rear IC. We...

Ok, that might changes things a bit, but fundamentally, the way you are laying out your IC is not correct. Your vertical line and the line going through your trailing arms will always intersect. This is what determines the height of the IC. The intersection point determines both the...

What you want to look at is the angle of a line drawn from the rear axle centerline through the TA front mount (your virtual TA angle). This is what is critical, not the actual TA structure angle. Another point that needs clarification is that the front TA attachment is not the IC. The IC is...

Larry, From my experience, I'd have to agree with Greg and Norm. Changing the TA front mounting height does nothing in terms of instant center or antisquat. Obviously you are concerned with damaging your car again, but this could simply be a case of a very sticky track that particular day...

You got it. That's why there is significant concurrent engineering of new racecars and the tire they will use. Facilities like Calspan, that provide tire testing, typically charge about $30-40K to do a study and the customer must provide 30+ sets of tires. Amateurs just don't have that kind...

A general rule of thumb is that half the compliance of on any corner of a racecar comes from tire deflection. Therefore, if you are in steady state cornering and you calculate that the outside front suspension is compressed 25 mm, then the chassis is actually 50mm closer to the ground. I'd say...

Dynamic tire deflection can have a significant effect on steering feel. One notable example is during heavy braking combined with turning into a corner. Pneumatic trail will increase as the tire carcass deflects allowing the tire contact patch to move forward relative to the tire rotation...

When the average driver report that a car has "good steering feel" I don't think they are only talking about steering feedback and precision, but also how well a car turns in (goes where you point it). Several factor are responsible for this, namely stiff springs, but a high roll center can...

The C4 corvette did have the spindle offset from the steering axis although it was in the opposite direction of the 2005 mustang. I have one of each spindle here before me right now and the mustang steering axis is about 20-25mm behind the spindle axis (reducing mechanical trail) however, the...

I understand that Ford studied the BMW design extensively when they designed the front suspension of the new Mustang. Having recently looked at the new mustang front I would note that the spindle centerline is well ahead of the steering axis (toward the front of the car). I measured it to be...

Let's discuss mechanical trail for a minute without considering the caster angle. Obviously the two can be de-couple if the spindle axis (tire rotation axis) is moved forward or back (side view) effectively moving it off of the king pin axis in the side view. From the experience that you all...

It would seem than with the obscene amounts of KPI strut cars are using to accommodate large tires and low scrub radius, running huge amounts of caster would be necessary to minimize the negative effects that a steep KPI has. Norm spelled out the benefits to lots of caster above. It would be...

After closely inspecting the front spindles of a new '05 Ford Mustang (strut suspension) I notice that the hub centerline lies forward of the lower ball joint by about 25mm. I was hoping to spark some dialog about what effect this geometry has in terms of handling and steering feel. Perhaps...

C2, That's a very nice calculator. Does it work out the geometry kinematically or some sort of convergence routine? Do you think you might be able to add additional tire that are more performance oriented such as 16 & 17 inch wheel sizes and width in the 245-335mm range? -Joest