Tampa Racing - Part 2: Why I Ask About Spring Rates, Car Weight, and Down Forces On A Car

Originally Posted by senor honda
Part2: Why I Ask......read part 1 first, for context.-Bob

If I were driving on a banked track or one where the car becomes airborn, I would calculate what the car weighs sitting still, and what I believe it will weigh on the banking and/or landing, and that would tell me the spring rate I would need to keep the car from bottoming out. That is why I asked about car weight and stock spring rates.

I asked about the forces that will be trying to push the car into bottoming-out mode for the same reason.

As for a street driven car, I would go with spring rates close to stock since they were engineered/designed to support the weight of a stock car. and i would use heavier/stiffer shocks to damp out the road bumps and depressions
to keep the tires pushed down onto the road, regardless of the minor ups and downs of the car's body while being driven on the street.

I believe springs that are too hard, cause a car to lose grip in a turn, since I believe hard springs
don't allow the tires to follow the road contours as closely.

Since I cannot figure the forces that a person will encounter on the street
in EACH turn, or even the radius of EACH turn encountered on the street,
It's pretty hard to say for the street, exactly what springs, other than stock, that a person should use.....especially in flat Florida, where the steepest bank is the X-way entrance/exit.

I suspect that life being full of compromises, most people have what they "think" they need instead of what they really need. They are also limited by how much they want to spend, and they don't keep buying springs until they get the "feel" that they want.

With a race car, a person has several sets of springs and tunes for each track which they run on......going harder or softer.....the advantages are:

1.Race turns and radiuses won't change for a given track, so they can be measured. The street is a multitude of compromises and variables and most people won't keep buying springs until they get it right for their type of driving.

2.Driver preference and driving style remain constant/flat out on a race track but on the street, a person is not always driving at the limit of his ability.-Bob