Z - Link

[wally8]

Hey Norm,

I was wondering when you'd chime in on this.



I would agree with your ranking given an open design platform. I like the 3 link if there's enough room for a good length on the links. It's a very elegant solution as we say.

For the confines of a stock vehicle is where I see the advantage of the Z. I also see the same advantage as you in that you can tune individual things without upsetting other things so much.

Durability is actually pretty good. The good quality pieces use a sealed roller bearing that holds up really well. The cheap way is to use the axle tube as the bearing surface for the birdcage. I wouldn't go that route on the street.

You're right on about the asymetrical tuning. This is exactly the reason they've been used in CT. My main focus here is good rear steer performance with short links in a symetrical design.

Wally

[Mean 69]

That, of course, gives you the opportunity completely control your braking reaction separately from your acceleration reaction. It used to be fashionable in the CT world but not so much anymore.

The ability to decouple braking from the other aspect of positive torque reaction is really important. I stated you can get a killer amount of A/S by using a short T/A, for instance, but not taking advantage of the braking decouple, in this example, would tend towards brake hop, potentially (likely?). As an example, I know of an individual on another board that is going to a decoupled T/A on his fourth gen Camarao track car, that is very well sorted and documented, because he is now experiencing some brake hop under certain track conditions. I believe the SVSA on the stock Camaro T/A is of the order of 60"!!!

Anyway, using the Z bar in this config, would seem to me to "only" address roll steer, which is clearly important, but you can mitigate this by clever placement of the lower links on a three linker.

Mark