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Re: air ride lessons

To: "Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>, <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: air ride lessons
From: John Beckett <johnbeck@blueridge.cc.nc.us>
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 14:45:00 -0500
Keith
ECTA Record Holder 
(wow like that ... wonder how long it will take to Type SCTA record Holder)

        How deep is your wallet? Actually there are some doable records at
Bonneville, but I have never seen an "easy" record at Bonneville. Then
there is the 200 MPH club.

        Can you get the .4 degree of camber out of the front end? I assume that
the 6.2 degrees of caster are all there is. It should be fine, just
wondered if there was more. Now that you have a better idea where the car
likes to ride you can set the alignment up for that height. Don't forget
higher speeds will probably contribute more down force. Ever consider a
skid plate?

        John Beckett
        BNI & ECTA record holder




At 08:34 PM 3/30/99 -0800, Keith Turk wrote:
>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 )
>



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