F1technical.net

Hi everyone there.

What you thing about an adjustable camber mechanism that allows to change camber while the car is moving?

So you get little bump steer and very little negative static camber for great straightline performance.

The mechanism would allow to increase camber gain at will during cornering.

Would current regulations allow any such mechanism?

Sounds like an active suspension.

Tremendous opportunity for performance gains? Absolutely.

Allowed in most pro series? Absolutely not.

Would sound like something to implement on a high end sports car

So why does absolutely no one use this feature?

Brian

It's illegal in most race series for one... and absolute limit racetrack performance isn't that important for a lot of vehicles.

Most consumers would probably get as much of a performance boost by buying a decent set of tires and keeping them properly inflated.

godlameroso wrote:Would sound like something to implement on a high end sports car

I think such system will be too heavy and complicated even for high end sports cars. Imagine how expensive the suspension uprights will be. The mere thought of kerbing a wheel would cause some serious damage to the system.

The most we have seen today is active anti-roll bars. The McLaren MP4-12C has hydraulic 'anti-roll bars' that varies the stiffness according to the situation.

Don't they do it in a way by means of geometry and kinematics of the suspension/steering?

Dragonfly wrote:Don't they do it in a way by means of geometry and kinematics of the suspension/steering?

You mean Passive Steering?

Passive steering have been employed in a few sports cars. Some Alfa Romeos and BMW's had passive rear wheel steering. The bushes and the rear wheel suspension geometery are designed to compress in one direction to provide a small amount of 'steering' to shorten the turn radius and also to aid high speed lane change stability.

BMW has had an electric rear-wheel steer system (co-engineered with Continental, I think) that was tested extensively but never quite made it to mass production...........I might be wrong, but some current high-end 7 series models might have it.

The problem with these systems is reliability and they have weak points that are similar to bent suspension arms once they age and slightly out of shape. The steering will be prone to go out of alignment. So maintenance and the risk of failure are the big issues here. Can you imagine what would happen to such a system on a F1 car that hits an x number of kerbs for the duration of a race weekend?

Mercedes made a concept car a few years ago with the system you mentioned. But it got no where.

http://robson.m3rlin.org/cars/mercedes- ... -car-2002/

f400 Mercedes concept car anyone?

wunderkind wrote:

Dragonfly wrote:Don't they do it in a way by means of geometry and kinematics of the suspension/steering?

You mean Passive Steering?

No not passive steering. My car actually has a kind of it.

We talk about camber. And I've seen, especially on the front (steering side of the car) that a combination of castor and kinematic scheme of the arms, pivoting points, etc. change camber in correlation to the steering angle of the wheels.
But I am not a mechanical engineer and my technical English is somewhat limited, so I'm afraid not to write a complete nonsense.

Dragonfly wrote:

wunderkind wrote:

Dragonfly wrote:Don't they do it in a way by means of geometry and kinematics of the suspension/steering?

You mean Passive Steering?

No not passive steering. My car actually has a kind of it.

We talk about camber. And I've seen, especially on the front (steering side of the car) that a combination of castor and kinematic scheme of the arms, pivoting points, etc. change camber in correlation to the steering angle of the wheels.
But I am not a mechanical engineer and my technical English is somewhat limited, so I'm afraid not to write a complete nonsense.

I understand you. No problem.

I was referring to the systems on the market today. Which only varies the toe (toe in and/or toe out). Some of these systems allow very limited camber movements.

Does Ford's revoknuckle do camber adjustments? Anyone know?

I think why we don't see it, is it's not too practical. You would get more use out of a torque vectoring all wheel drive system like in some high end audis lambos and the lancer evo

http://scarbsf1.com/renault_opt/Renault_OPT.htm


Passive constant camber system!

Caito wrote:http://scarbsf1.com/renault_opt/Renault_OPT.htm


Passive constant camber system!

Adjustable camber indeed!
Optimum camber is too badly needed I would be surprised nobody tried to use it.
At least while regulation allow it.

Actually Scarbs detailed Ferrari's silverstone rear end package as having a suspension package that shortened the upper wishbone; which meant that as the car was moving and downforce loaded the car down, the amount of negative camber would increase.

Here; http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/07/1 ... e-upgrade/