alistairolsen
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:42 PM |
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Handling effects of shortening a chassis 3 feet and not altering suspension?
If I took a locost chassis and removed the engine bay region so the front axle was 6 inches in front of the pedals, how would the handing change?
Obviously it would be less stable and the ackerman angles would be out, but would it have any catatsrophic effects?
Cheers
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Guinness
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:47 PM |
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It would be very slow.
Where would you put the engine?? I would have thought that relocating the engine would have more of an effect? Front Engined / Middy / Rear
Engined.
Mike
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nick205
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:48 PM |
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There's a "golden ratio" range of track and wheelbase supposedly. In general though the longer the wheelbase the more stable the
vehicle will be at high speed - the shorter the wheelbase, the better the vehicle will turn (for a given track).
Out of interest, where would you be fitting the engine if you remove the engine bay...?
Bike engine in the passenger seat area maybe?
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Ben_Copeland
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:49 PM |
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It wouldnt go anywhere without an engine!!
Ben
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alistairolsen
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:53 PM |
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lol,I was waiting for that....
The plan is to cut up a spare chassis, hang a bike engine right behind the firewall, run trailing arms from the rear crossmember (appropriately
stiffened) and run the standard front setup.
The weight distribution would be similar, but the whole thing would be shorter. Just curious what changes when you move tha axles closer together
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Ninehigh
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 08:57 PM |
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My first though on reading this was, did you see that W12 Golf on Top Gear? Very spin happy, supposedly because of the short wheelbase
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snapper
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 09:28 PM |
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Ackerman angle in steering geometry.
Wiki
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Wadders
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 09:38 PM |
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It would swap ends for fun
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alistairolsen
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 09:49 PM |
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above plan with a 400cc bike engine and quad tyres in a field, fun, or fundamentally flawed!
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mark chandler
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 09:56 PM |
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Ratio required wheel base to width is around 1.6
A locost with sierra axle is already a bit short in this regard, as above make it shorter and it will try and swap ends, that's partly why drag
racers are so long.
My old 80" wheelbase landrover with range rover axles was a hoot to race under hard braking, easy to induce oversteer and get the arse out.
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 10:03 PM |
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Not convinced you really want trailing arms on it, unless you enjoy going backwards on wet roads.
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alistairolsen
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 10:09 PM |
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whats wrong with trailing arms?
Keep the wheels upright, nice and simple, good articulation...
this sort of idea:
[img]http://www.blitzworld.co.uk/images/joyrider-12b[/img]
but with better coilover positioning.
http://www.blitzworld.co.uk/images/kr3sportsuspension3
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 13/5/09 at 11:37 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by alistairolsen
whats wrong with trailing arms?
Keep the wheels upright, nice and simple, good articulation...
And literally no camber control whatsoever. The wheels adopt the same angle as the body, giving lots of positive camber on the most loaded rear
tyre.
The are ok for an off-road buggy, and excellent for autograss cars where the lack of traction in corners is a positive benefit, but not so great for
a sweet handling road car. Even semi-trailing arms are pretty poor, they give some camber compensation at the cost of toe changes. Stick with live
axle or double wishbone unless you are going to make an off-road car IMO.
You might want to look at the system used on the GTM Libra, it has a kind of double trailing arm with camber compensation.
[Edited on 13/5/09 by MikeRJ]
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JoelP
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| posted on 14/5/09 at 06:40 AM |
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i got halfway through building one like this, with a zx9 in the passanger fotowell (still left room for a small passanger), and the front end off.
Never finished it though.
You could make a nice simple frame to keep the front wheels in the right (original) place and then have a very aerodynamic body over the front as it
would be fairly low/sleek.
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ettore bugatti
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| posted on 14/5/09 at 05:14 PM |
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It would be quite nippy, I imagine.
The new Toyota iQ offers also a ridicoulous track/ wheelbase ratio (1,48m on 2,05m IIRC.
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