Anti-Squat Physics

[parsonsj]

Anti-squat is a term that indicates how the vehicle reacts under straight-ahead acceleration. The value (say 50%) is the amount of the force that isn't translated into body squat.

It's kind of a backward term: you could just as easily call it "body lower" or some such and turn the value around.

The calculation itself is based on the lever length of the control arms divided by the lever length of the force generated by the tires.



One other thing to consider is that under vehicle braking, the forces reverse. In this case too much anti-squat is harmful: it will cause wheel hop. That's why 50% anti-squat is a good starting place for road racing and street cars: it's a good compromise between forward acceleration and braking (from a physics point of view: positive and negative acceleration). Finally, since most of the vehicle's braking is done by the front brakes, many racers find some success by increasing the anti-squat beyond 50% to give their cars more forward bite and giving up some rear braking effectiveness.

jp