Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim
What Frank is saying here is correct. With the current car design the chassis suspension (torsion bars, etc.) on the rear is mounted below the vertical center of gravity. Since the suspension is the only means of controlling chassis roll (until the jacobs ladder locks up, that is) it must be stiff enough to limit the rate of said roll, which potentially makes the suspension too stiff to maximize tire contact/weight transfer, etc. This 5th shock appears to allow some control of the roll rate while keeping the suspension as soft as possible. Kind of like installing an adjustable rate anti-roll bar. Probably not a bad idea, but all I need is to have to buy another 4-600 dollar shock.
By the way - coil-over suspension suspends the car at or above the roll center which adds some anti-roll itself.
Tim Simmons
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I really appreciate these topics about the technical side of open wheel cars. Frank and Tim made interesting comments about the fifth shock helping to control the roll center of the chassis. I was wondering if the fifth shock would work similar to the QRP CL2 bird cage that had a small coil spring in it's assembly that was connected to part of the W link, I think it was created to help prevent a bind and keep a true arc in the roll center? Many sprint car sanctions banned this birdcage early last year and I was wondering if it's the same idea presented in a different way.