The same arguement/benefit applies to inboard vs. I am hardly an expert, but the benefits of inboard suspension are the compactness of the layout (coil-overs out of the underbody airstream as indicated above) and a reduction of the unsprung weight *ratio* when compared to outboard systems.Īs Bob points out, there are complexities when you're adding pivots, bellcranks, etc, but the net result is the lightening of net suspension components outboard of the pivots leading to improved handling. Or, you can move the shock to a different hole, change the spring so the wheel rate stays the same, but now you have changed your damping! It's nice to have one belcrank with different mounting points for the pushrod and shock to test different wheel rates. If you kept this ratio at 1:1 then on a car that is very stiffly sprung, you won't have much shock movement and you lose resolution in damping.īy controlling the belcrank ratio (and the inclination of the pushrod or pullrod) you control that motion ratio. This INCREASES shock travel for a given amount of wheel travel. Cars with much less suspension travel will typically have belcranks that have a very short distance to the pushrod and a longer one to the shock. You will notice on many Formula cars the distance from the belcrank pivot to both the pushrod and and the shock are vastly different. The horizontal setup is probably a space and structural variation to allow more room for the driver's feet.Īnother advantage to inboard shocks: with a belcrank transferring the suspension loads to the shock, you can easily control the motion ratio between the shock and the wheel. Once there, designers figured out it was much easier to make adjustable anti-sway bars with the inboard setup, and the layout migrated to closed-wheel cars. Inboard dampers originated as an effort to get them out of the airstream on formula cars. In fact, unsprung weight is added by the linkage. They still have inertia and require force to be accellerated. You do not remove the dampers from the unsprung weight simply by using linkage. This style you are seeing in the picture is used today in open wheel racing. unless there is more to the rear frame that is not shown in the pictures.Ī benefit of pushrod suspension in open wheel cars is reducing aerodynamic drag.Īll of the GT40 suspensions ive seen on this site have had radius rods, in the rear, which is kind of an old suspension style. Im not convinced this is entirely safe as the bellhousing will be taking all the twisting forces brought on by the rear wheels in cornering and bump. This way of mounting the coilovers is convenient considering the ammount of space you're working with.Īnother feature of this suspension setup is that everything is mounted directly to the gearbox, there is no additional frame work for the back of the car. You can tilt the coil overs any which way as long as the lever arm is situated in such a way that it will input forces directly into the coil over. Mounting the coilovers horizontally on top of the gear box removes the coilovers from the unsprung mass, and essentially makes it sprung mass. That is a push rod inboard suspension, there are several benefits to this.
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