Hi Roberto, thanks for the comment. Increasing the front rebound stiffness allows more control over the extension of the dampers and prevents them from returning too quickly which can unsettle the contact patch and cause understeer. As the car exits the corner it begins to level, at this point it is important to control the rate at which the outside front damper returns to ride height, which the rebound stiffness does, so that the car is not shocked by exit forces.

Hi Damien, thanks for the comment. The procedure is focused mainly upon the low speed damping as it is the low speed damping that determines corner entry/exit behavior as the car transfers its mass across the axle during the cornering process. On circuit cars, high speed damping is more focused towards how the damper handles kerbs and sudden undulations or landing after a crest etc. Therefore, the most common route is to set a damper to a softer high speed setting so it can absorb and handle the sudden undulations but still behave how you would like it to through the corners using the low speed as a fine tuning tool.

Thanks

Hi Cater, thanks for the comment. When we refer to a softer setup with regards to dampers we are referring to the adjustable damper settings on the damper. They feature a + and a – symbol with + being stiffer and – being softer.

If you make the damper softer, it is less resistant to acceleration and therefore moves more easily. This means that with the same force input, it will have a higher velocity through it.

When talking about “softer setups” in general we are referring to softer spring and anti-roll bar rates allowing the car to be more supple and move roll more.

Thanks

If it is based on driver feel, then a softer damper = slower acceleration = more resistance force = higher rate in terms of N/(mm/s);

If it is based on damper travel, then a softer damper = easier to move = less resistance = slower rate in terms of N/(mm/s);

Obviously these two are completely different results when someone just says “softer setup”, which is very confusing (or just me confusing myself).

I would love some clarification on this, thank you very much 🙂 .

Do I still follow the same adjusting procedure? Do I do the same procedure for high speed or is the high speed the procedure you do that with and the low speed is different now?

HI Andre, yes that is correct. For excessive roll front bump compression should be increased to provide more resistance to the lateral loads acting upon the car for corner entry, helping to keep the car flat and stable. If the car is not rolling excessively but is still under steering then rebound can be increased to reduce the understeer.