I'll start by saying that I completely understand how stiff suspension is the best when on a smooth paved track. However I spend a lot of time watching hill climb and Nürburgring footage etc. and I see countless gt cars, open wheel cars, and others bouncing violently down these bumpy tracks and I fail to see how that is the best way to do get to the finish line.
Isn't all this bouncing keeping your tires from making contact with the road?
In those scenarios, the question becomes: Do you lose more time over the bumpy bits due to the stiffness, or in the flatter parts due to lack of grip/control..
like all things, it's a situation-specific tradeoff.
for compliance over irregularities, you want the suspension as soft as possible. but to reduce load transfer, low CG is desired. to avoid instantaneous spring rate changes and the resultant instantaneous load transfers, we stiffen them enough to not bottom out. so stiff suspension is a byproduct of low CG.
High speed damping and low speed damping. Softer high speed allows the shocks to suck up the bumps. Harder low speed so the vehicle doesn't wallow in the corners.
Of course, with shocks, nothing is that simple.
How stiff you need to be is largely a function of how much travel you have or can allow. So like AngryCorvair was saying, if you are trying to keep the vehicle low for handling reasons you will probably have limited travel and thus need a very stiff suspension to keep stuff from breaking. The stiff suspension will actually reduce the acceleration experienced by the chassis and the suspension attachment points compared to if you had a very soft suspension that blew through its travel and bottomed out at full speed.
Vigo said:How stiff you need to be is largely a function of how much travel you have or can allow. So like AngryCorvair was saying, if you are trying to keep the vehicle low for handling reasons you will probably have limited travel and thus need a very stiff suspension to keep stuff from breaking.
once again I am impressed by how smart Vigo is. :-)
Don't forget aero impacts. Cars with a lot of downforce need stiff springs to limit ride height change at high vs. low speeds.
Stiff shocks suck. Stiff springs work with meh damping (not "weak", just meh) is my rallycross recipe. And keep the sway bars, too.
Difficulty: "Stiff" is about double stock rate, not much stiffer than that. Or basically, the front wheel rate in lb/in is the vehicle's total weight divided by ten, and the rear rate is to taste but closer to stock works better than going stiffer.
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