Books on Suspension Theory & Design?

[Motobrewmaster]

Hi all,

Does anyone recommend any books on suspension & design? The more current the better. I of course am vary interested to learn more, but my daughter is a freshman in an engineering school and is also interested. She is on the Formula SAE Electric team in her school and wants to learn more. We just did an alignment on my car just to teach her the basics, but this is a far cry from what she and I would really like to learn.

With all the engineering types (I was one in a previous career) I am sure you all have some good reference books on your shelves.

Looking forward to the responses.



Cheers, Steve

[F-Body International]

Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling

By Herb Adams

[pitts64]

The Herb Adams book above and Mark Savitske's book... https://scandc.com/books/

[Motobrewmaster]

Thanks for the suggestions! I ordered the Herb Adams book last night. Do remember these can get super technical. My daughter is seriously at an amazing engineering school and they are hard core. They can handle the math, have all the tools we all wish we had and ones we only dream about at their disposal. What they don't have is the car sense, which takes time and practical experience to learn.

I am trying to teach my daughter how to be a "real" engineer and not one that designs things you can't actually make! She is very hands on, a great welder, learning her machine shop stuff now and is becoming pretty proficient with CAD. She has helped with my Camaro project in the past and really enjoys learning how everything works. We will be working on her new to her Ducati Monster for doing track days with me this winter during her winter break. I know it's missing two wheels for this forum but it is still pretty applicable.

Keep the suggestions coming!

[dhutton]

I am trying to teach my daughter how to be a "real" engineer and not one that designs things you can't actually make! She is very hands on, a great welder, learning her machine shop stuff now and is becoming pretty proficient with CAD. She has helped with my Camaro project in the past and really enjoys learning how everything works. We will be working on her new to her Ducati Monster for doing track days with me this winter during her winter break. I know it's missing two wheels for this forum but it is still pretty applicable.

Keep the suggestions coming!

That is awesome. I’ve always considered myself one of those real engineers, in large part because of the hands on experience I got prior to starting university. Really paid off for me over my 35 year career.

Don

[BMR Sales]

[79T/Aman]

[Mark@lateral-dynamics]

In addition to the great suggestions above, here is some others - I am pretty sure I have just about all of them:

Carroll Smith's books are excellent. Prepare to Win, Tune to Win, and Design to Win. They get increasingly technical with Design to Win being an exceptional insight into why stuff breaks, and how to design to minimize. Lot of metallurgy and material/hardware detail.

Allain Staniforth's Competition Car Suspension is also excellent and more towards the technical side. There is one chapter on weight transfer that is the best I have come across.

The most technical book I am aware of, and is also considered the go-to reference, is the Milliken brothers Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (RCVD). It's a complete reference that touches on more than just suspension, lots of equations. Graduate level college reference.

Keep in mind that a lot of the books (and the mainstream of this section of the hobby) deal with cars that use stick rear axles, and are inherently heavy. FSAE cars are the exact opposite (IRS and light weight). My opinion is the the above mentions have good relative content for these cars. I know there had been a really active FSAE internet forum but don't know if it is still active.

My hat is off to you and your daughter, we need LOTS more technically focused individuals from our younger generations, and it is double cool that "she" is going that route - it's not common but needs to be. Best of luck.

Mark