John:
Interesting story told by one of the better chassis
men curently on the planet (Paul Vanvaulkenburgh).
Another interesting note is since that fabled test,
the average racing joe can gather much better data at
a fraction of the cost. I have no gripe with trial and
error but it can be such a very costly (and dangerous)
proceedure.
John
--- John Burk <joyseydevil@comcast.net> wrote:
> In Paul Vanvaulkenburgh's book about Chevys R&D
> depertment (17 years of
> raucous silence) he wrote about Penske and Donahue's
> preliminary well
> instrumented tests of a nearly stock Camaro prior to
> entering the Trans Am
> series - Chevy brought their telemetry van down to
> the bumpy old road course
> in Marlboro Md - The Camaro hopped around as Mark
> braked into the corners -
> With the data they collected they learned the
> hopping was caused by the spring
> rate of the suspension exciting the spring rate of
> the chassis - With the race
> ready Camaro there were no suspension harmonic
> problems - Clever trial and
> error is needed to cure such problems when you don't
> have Detroits facilities
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