Trying to learn

[trackrat79]

Whats the point of the upper and lower ball joints on a spindle being verticaly offset, ( different distances from the spindle face).

With the turning axis of the spindle leaned in like that I would think this would take away from the turning grip and efficiancy.

is it done strictly for wheel clearances. I seems to me that having the balljoints dirrectly inline with each other parralel to the wheel face would be better.

when looking at open wheel formula cars, at a quick glance it looks like they have their upper and lower ball joints in a parallel vertical plane to the wheel face then add camber as needed.






Also curious about caster gain or loss, I understand the idea of caster for high speed stability, but what about low to mid speed cornering. When setting up a suspension do you design the caster to decrees as the suspension is compressed under braking and corning or do you just want it to be as static and unchanged through the suspensions range of movement as possible.

[Twentyover]

I think it's to keep the scrub radius low while providing good wheel/tire clearance

[Marcus SC&C]

There really aren`t any aspects of a front suspension that you can discuss in a vacume. All of the aspects interact with each other and you need to find the best compromises. Ball joint axis inclination does have a huge impact on scrub radius and it also allows some negative camber change when you turn the wheels. It`s not very much until you turn the wheels really far but considering how backward the camber curves of most traditional muscle cars are it acts as at least a small bandaid.
Caster gain is primarily a side effect of anti dive. Angling the cross shafts of the upper A arms (front side higher) in side view reduces front end dive under heavy braking. In factory cars with soft front springs/shocks that was fairly important,especially since many of them have extreme bumpsteer with toe out in bump. If the front end dives a lot the car gets very unstable. The additional + caster gain may also help to offset that unstability. In modern performance cars (or properly upgraded ProTouring cars) with firmer suspension and good (or corrected) bumpsteer you could do without most if not all of the anti dive which would also greatly reduce or eliminate the + caster gain. Mark SC&C