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Old December 11th 2009, 08:40
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evilC evilC is offline
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I like the Macpherson strut design especially with long track contol arms as you have the potential with a super chassis. My current super has my own fabricated track control arms with 944 struts. The arms have camber adjustment at the inner end as well as the adjustment on the 944 strut giving at least twice as much camber adjustment as normal and twice as much thatt Porsche felt necessary for the 944 that is quite successful in racing. In normal circumstances if the suspension design is properly sorted the maximum amount of adjustment you should need is 2-3*, if it needs more then something is seriously wrong with the layout.
Whilst the double wishbone design is the ultimate it needs long arms that the Red9 design and some of the others don't have. Whilst you could fabricate a long arm double wishbone suspension in a bug forget having any boot (trunk) space especially if you go for a inboard horizontal monoshock unit.
I have been working on the design of a macpherson strut front with fabricated track control arm and a compression strut that will give adjustment for camber, caster, roll centre and anti-dive. That will perform as well IMO as any other system, be simple to install and still give a package that provides a reasonable amount of space in the boot.
The late Colin Chapman was reknown for his suspension prowess and the development of the 'Chapman Strut' that was a macpherson strut for rear suspension. Also, many of the very best rally cars over the last 5 decades have used the macpherson strut to win international events and world championships. Some manufacturers even adopting the strut instead of of double wishones for their cars - the Metro 6R4 comes immediately to mind.

Clive.
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