I was just looking at various book titles at Amazon, and wondered if there should be a "recommended reading" section in the archives here.
What books have various people refered to during their build process apart from The Book?

Staniforth: Race and Rally Car Source Book
Lots of useful tips; information about the importance of wheel control in bump/droop; explanation of roll centres and their behaviour; background to some successful competition cars of the past.

Staniforth: Competition Car Suspension
Interesting albeit theoretical read. Good photos of steering and suspension on F1 and Sports Racing cars from last 30 years.

Dave Walker: Engine Management
Advert for Emerald M3D ECU! Good chapters on carburettor theory and tuning. Good info on engine management theory and tuning.

Peter Herbert: 750 Racer
Remarkably appropriate to the construction of a Locost. Very good detail about welding and brazing not contained in The Book. Good photos of rocker and pushrod suspension systems, use of rod-ends, construction of anti-roll bars.

Forbes Aird: High Performance Hardware
Excellent book on fastener theory and practice. Selection and correct usage of bolts, nuts, rivets, screws - you name it. Lists of tensile strengths and suggested torque settings. Methods used to prevent fasteners working loose and their pros and cons.

Forbes Aird: Fiberglass & Composite Materials
Interesting enough, but I'm not planning on using any of the techniques. Possibly more useful if you're setting-up a small composites workshop.

Simon McBeath: Car Set-up
Can't remember the title - this is an A5 sized freebie that fell off the front cover of CCC a year or more ago. Explains how to measure and set tracking, caster, camber and corner weights. Am looking forward to the day when I need this info!!

Cheers,

Eddy

some more light reading for when you can't work on the car
Carroll Smith: Engineer to win
interesting read, but prob not the most usefull in building a locost. But very good to get a feel with the materials

Ron Champion:Build Your Own Sports car

This book has been no help at all.

Feldman:The Female Nude, has helped at times.

Cheers

Chris (The real one)

a) Rebuilding & Tuning Ford X-Flow & Pinto Engines; Peter & John Wallage

Useful whether doing a full or partial re-build

b) How to build & modify Sportscar & Kit car Suspension & Brakes; Des Hammill

Simple easy to understand diagrams & description, needs to be read a few times I think to fully understand though.

c) Burton Power Catalogue; useful technical info on Ford engines/gearboxes etc

chrisg:

quote:

---

Ron Champion:Build Your Own Sports car.

This book has been no help at all.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisg
Ron Champion:Build Your Own Sports car

This book has been no help at all.

---

Yep, got to agree......the "book".......

As I've always said...Very inspiring...but. technically poor....

However, I wouldn't be building my own car again without the inspiration.....so I guess you do need it...just read the rest though too......oh and join this forum....which you must have if can read this....duh....

"How to build & modify Sportscar & Kit car Suspension & Brakes"; Des Hammill

I was underwhelmed by this one, it was rules of thumb with anecdotal theory, no proofs. Maybe a good book to start, but you can't design with it.

I'm also pretty sure his section on ackerman was wrong. He talks about ackerman being set by the angle of the steering arms depending on whether the rack is a front or rear steer; from my drawings it looks like it depends on whether the rack is in front or behind the steering arm attachments. Has anyone else looked at this?

"How to Make Your Car Handle"; Fred Puhn
I found this book really good, I'm always refering to it when modelling a geometry using turbocad and checking how it moves.

looking at some diagramms on ackerman. it seems to me that it is mainly build into the frontuprights and is influenced by the steeringrack position.

How to modify ford SOHC (pinto) engines.
By David vizard

Also

For the RV8 boys The Rover V8 and Tuning the Rover V8 by David hardcastle.

I haven't read Hamill's book, but the only way of achieving true Ackerman is by having a rear mounted rack. It's impossible with a front mounted rack, unless you omit the brakes, and have a huge scrub radius.
Most manufacturers aren't too concerned with true Ackerman these days, many opting for "modified Ackerman, or "reverse Ackerman".
In one application I used rear steer uprights on the "wrong" sides, and used a front mounted rack.
On most of my off-road stuff, I mount the rack in front of the axle for packaging reasons (foot space, we're restricted to a 2 metre wheelbase), and I'm reliably told, manufacturers package steering components, often, almost as an after thought!

Hi Rorty, that's just what Des said. Probably then what I don't understand is the term "true ackerman". I thought ackerman was having the inside wheel turn more than the outside, ideally to match the inner and outer radii of the turn.

I think Les said what you did, that to get ackerman with a front mounted rack, the control arms must curve outside the king pin axis. I did some drawings to show otherwise, I guess what I'm missing is the "true ackerman" point.

The first shows a rack in line with the steer arm attachments, causing reverse ackerman. My second diagram shows putting the rack behind the attachments causing what I thought was proper ackerman. Did I mess it all up?

The diagrams didn't upload very well. What they show is that if the rack is behind the attachments, when the arms move in an arc the inside control arm effectively shortens faster than the outside. It's because the outside moves back in line with the rack quicker than the outside one does.
Rescued attachment image002.gif

Maybe it's not so bad, here's the other. In the first diagram, the angles are 21.44 and 18.4 (outside/inside), and in this one they're 17.79 and 18.43.

Whew, that was more trouble than it was worth, but I got stubborn trying to make it work .
Rescued attachment image004.gif

MikeP, true Ackerman is when a line drawn through the theoretical KP/steering arm centres intersects the centre of the rear axle.
Any other rear-facing steering arms that don't intersect the axle centre are deemed "modified Ackerman".
Some fast road cars and race cars use reverse Ackerman, whereupon the OUTER wheel (the most heavily loaded) actually turns more acutely than the inner wheel.
Ackerman is one of the most debated theories, but I believe it's one of the least important aspects of front geometry. I think others do too, which would explain their disregard for it!
Conversely, I've seen plenty of production cars, set up per manufacturers recommendations, that are in definite need of attention to Ackerman.

i think ron champion really needs to loose the 'for as little as £250' bit,

anyone else heard the roumer that a 3rd edition is on its way, to include IRS, weather proofing / hoods etc???

Thanks Rorty. BTW, you've got a great web site!

One of the most inspiring (read 30 years ago):
"Racing and Sports Cars Chassis Design" by Costin
Lost it in my move from Belgium back to Portugal in 77; anyone got a .pdf version?

Joćo

Hadn't even thought of books in pdf! My library is obviously really poor, so can any one supply any of the above books in pdf, or know where they're available?

I've always found haynes manuals from relevant donor vehicles a help, the strip and rebuilt sections are reasonably good.

Is this thread about books or ackerman (?) angle? Anyhoo my favorites are:-
Razzle
Escort
40 Plus
Escort Contacts
Big jugs Monthly
etc.... etc..... etc.....