Hello....
Well, as this thread once again descends towards the bottom of the page its probably time to stick up another place marker and say (if anyone's still watching) that this project is very much not - and I mean NOT!!!! - dead. I'm living away from home supporting test work for my employers and don't have access to my CAD machine which is meaning I can't get on with it the way I'd like, but I am still background processing as much as I can.
I've tried to digest the contents of Milliken and Milliken to the best of my abilty (that vehicle dynamics book up there is what I mean), and although it's a proper engineering reference text, and I can't expect to own all the knowledge it contains, by going back to basics and making notes to later review, I feel like I've made a bit of headway. Night after boring night in my Spanish hotel with only sh1ty Spanish TV to entertain do tend to focus the mind on study!
The later chapters on suspension geometry, steering and weight transfer have been the most useful. Without much initial starting data on the vehicle's tyres the earlier parts of the book quickly descend too far into theory for them to be useful for me as I see it. Having said that though, I've learnt a lot. An example is Z-car's moving the steering rack forward on their revised front subframes makes sense to me now (if they really have done this by design) - positive ackermann geomtery loads the tyre more favourably on the outside wheel in cornering, and its reassuring to relate what the book says to things other people have done....
The equations the book contains for calculating wheel loads in cornering appear to be a goldmine for the ambitious car designer, and I am looking forwards to having more accurate data on vehicle weight and centre of gravity height in order to apply those to equations to determone my starting roll bar and spring stiffenesses. Its particularly reassuring to feel that a route to calculating those is acheivable. Getting that vehicle weight and distrubtion better understood requires me to be at home though - and I'm hopeful there is good news on that front coming. It is looking like by Spring 2011 I will be based at home rather off messing around with cars abroad.. Fingers crossed......
Anyway - I promise there's good reasons this project has been stalled, and I'm not smoking anything when it comes to my description of the places I have been in the meantime.. The last 12 months have been awesome for me professionally, and we are very nearly at the end of it now. Our product is flippin awesome. Keep your eye on Top Gear for a very special and entirely British supercar which I have sacrificed this project for in 2010. Ferrari look over your shoulder, there's a new kid in town.
More importantly look out for the first cut of metal on the mini in 2011......
Dave.
Edited by SukiDawg, 25 January 2011 - 11:36 PM.
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