Quote:
Originally Posted by enigma
Take a picture of the car in a sustained sweeping turn and both the hard and soft shock car will be leaning the same. They will have the same wheel travel.
|
This is only true to the extent that you are only considering the steady-state response (and I realize you used the term "sustained"). It is not true if you are considering the transient response, which I believe, is what Gearhead999s has been saying. Meaning, if you are measuring the "maximum" displacement of the system, there will be differences as in the transient case the displacement response is not only a function of spring stiffness but also of damping ratio. Although I am clearly not as experienced as you or Gearhead999s on the track, I can only assume that will have implications for the handling of the of the car in general. The extra travel of a so-called "less-stiff" suspension must have implications. Imagine hitting a series of bumps in close succession, which is probably constantly happening, or back to back quick steering inputs where the suspension never really has enough time to settle. What happens then?
Here is a piece of information that seems to be missing in this discussion. While I was speaking with Larry Koch, I asked him about this. He told me that, in Normal, the suspension can actually be "stiffer" than Sport depending on the inputs. He obviously was not referrring to the spring rate or the steady-state behaviour. He was referring to what Gearhead999s was referring to as "dynamic stiffness" of the system that is a result of the computer adjusting the damping ratio in real-time in the Normal setting.