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Originally posted by sykikchimp
No.. Hard springs cause erradic bump-steer. thats why it's call "BUMP" steer.. and not "Roll" steer...

Did that make sense to anyone else? Anytime you stiffen the suspension, the car is going to have more bump steer, whether its by harder springs or bigger sways. The only real difference is whether that bump is absorbed by one contact patch or two.

Hard springs are a Crutch for having something else not tuned properly on your car, and can actually cause you to have much less traction b/c the wheel and chassis reacts so violently to sharp changes in pavement conditions. ESPECIALLY if you don't have much chassis bracing to force the spring and damper to absord the shock..

Actually, swaybars are the crutch. Ideally, there would be no need for swaybars at all and every wheel would be completely independent. However, this would require incredibly stiff springs to control roll, hence, sway bars. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe F1 cars have no sways at all.

Having lighter springs (8front 6 rear IS light) and a stiffer sway bar will allow for the tires to be connected to the road better, and will increase speeds because your Transitions will happen faster because your car isn't rolling as much. When your car is mid corner, and body roll is locked by the sway bar, and you hit a bump, you still have travel in the suspension to absorb the bump without upsetting the cars balance.

If using Caddilac springs and wrist-thick swaybars is good suspenion tuning, I'd rather be wrong. If 8/6 is soft, whats stiff? The highest I've ever seen is like 10/9, which ain't a huge jump. And even if you mean hitting the bumpstops, the last half of that paragraph makes no sense.

If you have Hard spring, and light bars, then the sway is being controlled by the spring. If you hit a bump with all that roll pressure sitting on the spring mid corner with the car balanced, suddenly you upset the cars traction points. If your springs can't absorb the bump because they are busy controlling roll, the CHASSIS has to take the bump. This will make the car more unpredictable, and ultimately lead to slower lap times.

That jolt doesn't magically dissapear. The force just gets sent over the opposite suspension where its compesses the spring, and the force gets sent to (guess what?) THE CHASSIS! And in the meantime, that wheel that is actually on smooth pavement is trying to pull itself up into the wheel wheel. Predictable, indeed.

Balance, and Predictability are PARAMOUNT. If you can't run consistant lap times, or consistantly improve b/c something in your setup changes every lap, you don't get any better, and SURE aren't gonna win.

I agree completely. I just don't see how the soft spring/big sways accomplishes this.

BTW - If you get the 240 to do some "Dog Pi$sing" 3 legged action, just means that you had all the traction being placed on the front opposite corner. The car isn't setup properly. My bet is your springs are too soft, and allowing for too much weight transfer to the front under braking. That combined with chassis flex while turning hard. (you probably like to trail brake?) will cause the rear tire to hang from your sway bar. Overall reducing your total possible traction

Gee, if I had harder springs and softer sways, it wouldn't lift the wheel? Now you sound like me!