Suppose i could build an extremely light single seater say 150 kg with a very low CG.
Suppose i would use that bike powered car only for hillclimb races.
Would it be worth the effort to design/build a shock absorbing system?
The answer seems obvious but being no expert at all the answer is'nt so obvious to me.

Go carts run with no suspension and they are quite drivable but weigh alot less than 150kg.
go carts rely on a certain amount of flexing in the chassis and give in the tyres to help even out the bumps but the price is comfort and short chassis life becaus the constant flexing eventualy wrecks it.
A good idea in principal but probably doesn,t work when scaled up.

you could try rubber as suspension units

Depends on what you mean by rubber

In formula 440/500 rubber shocks are used and even there i'm not sure if they are realy worth the effort given the fact that the chassis is only an inch above the surface or so,so the wheel travel will be very limited.(before you guys jump on my neck i know that the vertical travel of the chassis depends on wishbone lenght an pivot point location)
Any serious (oh well... even the not so serious) advize will be more than welcome.

A friend of mine built a trike with a rigid rear axle and big tyres to supply springing (in theory). It bounced round like a bouncy thing on springs as there is no damping with tyres alone.

Pete,could this "bouncing around" of your friends trike has something to do with the road condition?
I have seen some video footage of a formula 500 and it did not seem to jump around,on the contrary i would say.
Having no damping on a good flat hardened track would'nt cause many problems i think,having no damping on a dirt track can give you views of the landscape in an angle you never seen before.

It did have a tendency to lift the inside rear wheel on corners as well but that probably wouldn't happen to such a degree with 4 wheels and lower C of G.

Here in the Uk for motorsport (and road) it is a requirement to have "effective suspension" in all car classes.
Builders of very light hillclimb single seaters have in the past built what are effectively sprung karts using rubber blocks the rubber having a large degree of self damping.

[Edited on 20/5/04 by britishtrident]

Why not just use bicycle dampers. The university cars often use these.

Adam

Thanks for the input guys but i just wanted to know if shock absorbation would make such a big diff in the handling.
After all the car is very light and the track is usually good.