thought I would take a second and tell what I learned about the air ride
suspension this weekend... to me it was fascinating... and just a bit scary
once...
First I listened to all your suggestions and set the car on an alignment
rack with 6.2 degrees of Caster and just about .4 degrees of positive
chamber... Set the toe at ride height at 5/16ths.... which was about 2 1/2"
off the ground... Then I took several alternate location measurements.. so
I would know what I had when I altered the ride height by adding or
subtracting air...
all that done what I didn't realize was that there is a ton of downforce on
the nose of the car at speed and that downforce both front and back
compresses the suspension.... I have watched a bunch of Nascar racers do
the same thing and never gave it a thought... well that first hard pass...
with the car set at 2nd a half inches... allowed it to go down to the
ground... and let the chassis touch.. which of course unsettled the ride
and the car started drifting around and hitting the ground more... Out Came
the Parachute... and in went the air.... the nose came up and all was
well....
The next pass we took the nose up another 1inch and it got better... this
also coincided with the toe being set at virtual zero until we got some
downforce on the car and the nose came down at speed which took the toe to
back to the original 5/16ths or so....I could tell this by the added
airpressure at speed... not that I was looking much.... to be honest I have
set up a warning gage system that I don't have to look at anything but the
tach... and I don't even have to look at it.... I can recover most of the
info at the end of the pass without having seen it...
on the end of the day .. I can honestly say I was very pleased with the air
ride... it gave me some options that were very useful and without it I
would have been doing coil over adjustments that would be a major pain in
the butt...
The air ride worked... and really isn't that expensive when compared to the
coil over option... and the flexibility is awesome...
Keith
ECTA Record Holder
(wow like that ... wonder how long it will take to Type SCTA record Holder)
Keith Turk
Austin Healey 100 / Bugeye / Box Sprite / Bonneville Land Speed Racer
Camaro ( D Gas Altered )
|