F1 suspension questions...

[M Coupe]

Best suspension book is Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken/Milliken.

[Kid Prozac]

A better way to explain allofthis would be to quote roll gradients. Roll gradient, measured in deg/G, and is the amount the car rolls(deg) per 'G' of lateral acceleeration. this will take into account the total roll stiffness of the car, inclding; tyre stiffness, spring stiffness, damper stiffness (you'll be amazed at the amount of people who don't consider the damper in their calculations, it takes force to compress it......) roll bars etc

typical values are:

F1<1
Sportscars approx 1.5
High performance roadcars would be about 3-4

monoshock equipped cars are probably a lot less than 1

[Kid Prozac]

Originally posted by M Coupe
Best suspension book is Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken/Milliken.

Agreed, although there are a few errors in the calculations.... and I'm not entirely convinced that how they calculate the portion of roll stiffnes provided by the roll bars is strictly correct.

As well as that, other highly recommended reading is:

Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics - Thomas Gillespie
Tyres Suspension and HAndling - Jon Dixon
Tyre and Vehicle Dynamics - Hans Pacejka

Another excellent read is:

SAE Paper 662536 - A Force Based Roll Center Model For Vehicle Suspensions

Which intorduces the concept of force based roll centres, a much more accurate way of calculating a roll centre position than the kinematic method as delat with in most books.

Bear in mind though that any calculactions you perform are only as good as the tyre model you have.