Re: Roll Centers and CG

[Carscribe@domain.elided]

Michael Smith wrote:
>Moral of the story is don't mess with suspension >geometry unless you know what you're doing. Generally, >lowering the roll center without lowering the center >of gravity requires that you stiffen the spring rate >in roll to preserve handling characteristics, let >alone try to improve them.

This is absolutely true. We spent a total of thirty hours of skidpad and alignment rack time over a one month period to get the EC GTV-6 handle better than stock, starting with just slight lowering and followed by many, many adjustments. In the end it was little better than a stock GTV-6 with good quality shocks, tires and fresh bushings. I had some previous experience with a Alfetta GT we prepared for SCCA GT3 many years earlier, so we knew where to start, but still had to learn many things all over. The law of decreasing returns rules in the absence of 1st hand knowledge and a plan. After all this the car ended not far from original height and with better rubber and dampening, and modified lower-A arm spacers to recover  camber adjustability lost from lowering. 

Good Luck,
Paul Mitchell

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided