Separating ride from roll...?

[exwestracer]

I've been keeping this idea under my hat for a couple of years now, but things change; and most of my fellow competitors don't follow this site...so here's something to ponder, and give feedback on. We've all (well, a lot of us anyway) spent a lot of money on sway bars and trick digressive shocks which try to control roll forces differently than ride (bump) forces. I think there may be a better way, at least for solid axle systems.

I've been intrigued by the Mumford lateral locating linkage ever since I learned about it; and having followed F1 suspension design through the 80s, I noticed the similarity to a "pull-rod" inboard suspension design.

One of the benefits of the Mumford design is the free rotation of the axle about the roll center (the linkage only operates in bump and droop). So what if...the mumford linkage was used to operate a monoshock coilover to hold the weight of the vehicle? The spring and shock would operate in bump, but offer NO resistance to roll forces.



So what to do about roll force? If we consider the physics of roll, what we have is a torque force applied by the vehicle center of gravity about the roll center. Torque is expressed as lb-ft., or pounds of force with a 1ft lever arm. So, if a spring and shock are placed 12" above the roll center to resist roll torque, the units cancel out and what is left is straight pounds of side force. Mount the coilover horizontally, and it has very little, if any, effect on bump movement. So what comes of this is a way to control roll force and damping totally separately form bump force. No more sway bars and 4 way adjustable shocks unless we want them.