Chassis Building 101. Ride Height

[Dr G]

I was flipping through my archives and stumbled upon this article regarding a race car from the British Touring Car series back in the late 90's. This was a time during which great strides were made in how to use a roll cage to stiffen a vehicle in torsion. Before this time folks just thought of a roll cage in terms of crash protection. But the BTCC and World Touring guys in the 90's latched on to the idea that all these tubes, if properly placed, could make huge improvements in torsional rigidity. And that this in turn improves suspension performance. Just like there was a time when race car guys did not realize the benefit of wider tires, there was also a much longer period when they did not realize the importance of a rigid chassis in terms of getting a vehicle to handle. Automakers have likewise discovered that a stiff chassis is crucial to improving the all important NVH (noise-vibration-harshness) factor in passenger cars and trucks.

The article mentions the "section" of a car chassis relative to an F1 chassis. This bears directly on the statement I made that if you're building a pro touring truck frame, you should make it as wide and tall as possible. This increases its section (the size of a cross-section). A truck frame can be thought of as nothing more than a 'squat' roll cage or space frame.

See below if interested:





Gustave