Tyre Performance and Grip – A Deeper Look

We spend a lot of time writing about suspension and different tips and tricks to achieving a great set up to make you and your car as fast as possible around the track. However, a suspension set up can often only be as good as the tyres used. This is because the aim of a perfect set up is to deliver excellent dynamic feedback to the driver as well as getting the most out of the tyre in order to generate the highest amount of grip as possible. 

Drift Car Set Up

For those that are not familiar with drifting, it is a motorsport in which the car must maintain constant and fluid oversteer between a series of corners on a circuit whilst hitting certain clipping zones on circuit and having as much proximity with the other car as possible. A good set up can go a long way in keeping the car sliding and providing a fluid, predictable transition.

How to Remove Oversteer and Understeer

If you have taken your car to a circuit you will be very familiar with understeer and oversteer. The two enemies of good lap times even if one of them is quite fun! Understeer is when the front of your car washes out towards the outside of the corner giving a lack of steering feel and pushing the car wide. Oversteer is when the back of the car swings out to the outside of the circuit, rotating the car and making it slide to the outside of the corner.

Secrets’ Sessions – Lindsay Rice

Who is Lindsay Rice? Lindsay Rice is a dedicated and passionate 26 year old race car driver, from Mississauga Ontario in Canada. She currently races in the US and Canada in GT racing. We decided to have a chat with her and ask some questions to find out a bit more about what drives Lindsay […]

Budget to Premium Coilovers – What’s The Real Difference?

Two questions we are asked frequently by our followers are:” Is it worth spending more money on coilovers for my track car?” and “What is the difference between cheap, mid-range and expensive coilovers?” They are two very good questions as prices in the coilover market can vary from £200 for a set, up to £3000 […]

Bobby’s Build: Part 2

When we left Bobby’s build he had created a custom front suspension system, stripped the car back to its bare bones and lowered the car on some new BC Racing coilovers. Now, a few weeks further down the line, Bobby has been busy with the rear suspension system fully redesigned as well as having a […]

Anti-Squat Geometry

The geometry at the rear of a motorbike is slightly less complex than that of cars due to one main linkage connecting the rear wheel to the chassis in the form of the rear swing arm. The main aspect of rear geometry that affects the handling, response and feedback of the bike is anti-squat geometry.  Squat is the amount that the rear suspension compresses vertically under acceleration conditions.

BAC Mono – Under The Skin

We had a chat with the guys at BAC Mono who, if you don’t already know, create an single seater supercar called the BAC Mono. It is renowned for its handling capabilities and the pure driving pleasure that it delivers due to the lightweight and ultra-responsive chassis. We thought we would have a quick chat […]

Bobby’s Build: Part 1

Interior Strip Down The first stage of most race car builds when starting with a road car is to strip out all of the unnecessary weight. Bobby’s build was no different as he took to the interior of the Mitsubishi Eclipse, pulling out everything in sight except for the door cards which are staying in […]

Anti Squat, Dive and Lift Geometry

Anti-squat, anti-dive and anti-lift geometry which will be referred to as “anti-geometry” when discussing them as a whole is a form of geometry at the front and rear wheels that alters and controls the amount that a car will compress the springs due to acceleration, deceleration or braking conditions.

Motorcycle: Front Geometry

Due to motorbikes having 2 wheels instead of 4, they have significantly less geometry to think about. However, the geometry that they do have is adjustable and affects the handling of the bike in a big way.  The geometry categories are split into front geometry and rear geometry. This section will cover front geometry and […]

Bobby’s Build: An Introduction

Throughout this series of posts we are following an avid enthusiast and Suspension Secrets reader, Bobby Gould, as he builds his first ever time attack car using nothing but his own two hands and online resources to create a competitive race car. A lot of thought and effort has been put into some very custom […]

Set Up Alterations For Changing Weather Conditions

One of the biggest enemies to a great new set up is a weather change. Suddenly a near perfectly handling car can change dramatically when the track conditions change due to a change in weather. However, with a few simple adjustments the effects of the weather don’t have to impact you too much.

How Tyre Data Can Make You Fast

Monitoring your tyres when out on a track day or when racing is one of the most effective things you can do to make your car as grippy and as fast as possible with minimal effort. Your tyres are the final point of contact between your car and the ground. Therefore, they transmit a lot of information from your suspension set up and also store a lot of useful information that can be measured to help fine tune your geometry to make the tyre work more efficiently with the ground to make your car go faster with ease.

Calculating Ideal Spring and Roll Bar Rates Part 2

In case you missed Part 1 – Calculating Ideal Spring and Roll Bar Rates – How To Adjust And Tune – Suspension Secrets Accounting for Tyres So far in the process we have ignored the effects of tyres for calculating our spring rates. One aspect of the tyre to consider is the grip generated due […]

Calculating Ideal Spring and Roll Bar Rates

The ride and roll rates of your car determine a change in wheel load to a change in body position, be that in bump or roll. Roll rates determine the change in tyre normal force side to side for a given applied torque to the chassis or a given amount of chassis roll. Ride rates […]

Roll Centre and Roll Moment

The roll centre positions of your front and rear suspension geometry are key features affecting the lateral load transfer rates of your front and rear axles.

Lateral and Longitudinal Load Transfer

Two main types of load transfer exist; lateral load transfer and longitudinal load transfer. In this article we will cover the basic equations for both to provide an understanding of what each is and how it works dynamically.

How To Calculate Centre of Gravity Position

Finding your centre of gravity position (referred to as COG as well in this post) is very important when you want to start understanding how your car handles and why it handles the way it does.

Wheel Rate and Chassis Roll Stiffness

Wheel Rate Wheel rate is effectively the spring rate when measured at the wheel as opposed to at the spring. It is important to understand the wheel rate of a vehicle for calculating the spring rates and understanding the car dynamically. Coil Spring Wheel Rate In order to calculate wheel rate we need to know […]