Generic Ride Height (& Spring Rate) Questions

A lot of times I'll lower the ride height and it'll improve the balance for me quite a bit. And the spring rates seem to be low a lot of the time too. Is that to make it more beginner friendly and more forgiving?

I remember when streaming once, someone told me to try lowering the height in the front and raising the rear, to create a "rake" affect, he also then told me for some tracks, like Spa and Monza, you do the opposite.

I understand the "rake" effect, but what is the advantage of the opposite, where you raise the front higher than the rear? And why is it especially good on tracks like Monza and Spa?

It feels like it's better for hard braking and really fast sweeping corners, is that correct?

Also, what other ride height tips do guys have? I've heard that the lowest you can go without bottoming out is the best, but others have said that they like the car to rotate with a little higher ride height.

And what about spring rates, how do you guys judge how soft or hard you want them?

Just wanted to get more insight and perspective.

 

Hard is more precise, soft is more forgiving, ultimately it depends on the track (how bumpy etc) and your preferred driving style and what car you are driving.

Ride height will alter CoG, lower will mean less transition of weight, higher means more, again, depends on track and your preferred driving style and what car you are driving.

I wouldn't look at either in isolation, because both spring rate and ride height will also have a big connection to how your dampers and ARB's are setup.

 

So how would I alter the ARB and damper in accordance to the spring rate and ride height. I know ride height and spring rate go together because the lower you go, the stiffer your springs need to be since you don't want to bottom out. But what about the ARB and dampers?

Although, it seems like you could get away with small changes without having to alter other settings. I've done it to better feeling results.. so I don't know.

Also, I'm still curious about the "opposite rake" effect. What is the advantage of it?

 

Well, ARB controls weight transfer across the car, so ride height will have a combined affect, dampers are set to spring rate, so adjusting spring rate without altering dampers to suit will be less than perfect.

There are a load of calculators and cheat sheets on the net that will explain it.

As for rake

 

I didn't even think of the camber increasing when lowering the car. So let's say for example, I stiffen the the suspension 2 clicks all around and lower the car 2 clicks all around. What would I have to do with the roll bars and dampers to keep it balanced?

 

Remember the figures you see in game are not actually spring rate but wheel rates, so actually give a better idea of balance, suspension frequency would be better still, but that information is not available (on console anyway)

 

A raked car produces more drag than one that is running "flat" which might be advantageous at places like Monza and Spa.
Also many people may feel that front grip isn't a priority on those tracks.

Be careful with your rake, if you raise the rear too much you might push the diffuser out of the ideal range and end up with less downforce.

 

So is there a correlation that is supposed to be happening with the dampers, spring rate and roll bars? For example, if I were to stiffen the springs and lower the car, what would I have to do to the roll bars and dampers... soften them?

 

In brief......

Dampers control the rate at which the spring can compress and rebound, as spring rates increase the damping must increase to maintain control of the spring.

I'd ignore ARB's for now, and just use them for doing slight alterations to how the car enters and exits corners.

 

yes like Danowat told hardest the spring hardest must be the damper, usually i keep softer ARB with an hard setup, and medium/hard ARB with a softer one depending of the track

 

Okay thank you. Thats what I was looking for. I have a decent understanding already of what most of the settings do, I was just a little unclear on what changes must be done together. I was stiffening the spring rate and lowering the car without touching the dampers. As for the ARBs, I have a good understanding of what it does itself and the effect it has, but again, uncertain of what changes should be made with it.

At least now I understand dampers must be stiffened along with spring rate and why.

 

ARB's.

Not only do they control the stiffness of the suspension across the body, L/R, they also have a direct affect on what the opposite wheel is doing.

This is an old video, and it's rally, but it still applies to road and track (think riding kerbs)



As a (very simplistic) rule of thumb.

Increasing front ARB increases understeer
Decreasing front ARB reduces understeer
Increasing rear ARB increases oversteer
Decreasing rear ARB reduces oversteer

Obviously there is more to it, and like everything, it's all a compromise.