Ride height question

[Greeny.]

Ok as ive been watching alot of old skool BTCC recently its made me think, all those cars are completely 'on the deck' and handle extremely well, obviously they are step up properly but why is being so low on track in a Clio not acceptable and frowned upon? All the Clio Cups are also on the deck so surely a lower centre of gravity is the way to go if its possible and setup correctly? There are so many times on read on here that "being to low ruins handling" well obviously not in all cases.

Discuss?

Dan

 

[D4N13L]

Tracks are smooth and dont forget the un limited geometry setups they play with on each track. Im sure if you took a clio cup car on the road it wouldnt cope to well at that height.

 

[Greeny.]

True but for pure handling and track use low as possible is the way to go then?

 

[Soot1e]

There is nothing wrong with lowering Clios or any other car as long as all the suspension is set up correctly. As for BTTC cars being so low, well they don't have to drive on the road and over speed humps etc. Our road cars have to cope with normal road conditions and a track, if you go on trackdays that is. So for us road and track users we have to find a compromise.

 

[robins]

Its all about the roll centres, lowering the front ride height lowers the front roll centre due to wishbone and strut angles (something similar happens on the rear but is slightly different due to it being an H beam - on a clio that is). This gives more body roll on the front end through cornering, to counteract this stiffer springs/ARB are needed which don't help grip and handling. Cup race cars have specific wishbones and hubs to correct this roll centre issue bringing it back closer to standard (dont kno how much by). The BTCC cars are also running proper aero parts and have a flat underbody (i think?) so running them as low as possible makes for more downforce gains than handling deficiencies improving overall laptimes.

and breathe.....

 

[Greeny.]

What is the advantage to the BTCC cars running so low out of interest then?

Im still interested in why people on here state running to low isnt a good idea, obviously speed bumps, bad roads etc are a pain why would this effect handling?

 

[Greeny.]

Its all about the roll centres, lowering the front ride height lowers the front roll centre due to wishbone and strut angles (something similar happens on the rear but is slightly different due to it being an H beam - on a clio that is). This gives more body roll on the front end through cornering, to counteract this stiffer springs/ARB are needed which don't help grip and handling. Cup race cars have specific wishbones and hubs to correct this roll centre issue bringing it back closer to standard (dont kno how much by). The BTCC cars are also running proper aero parts and have a flat underbody (i think?) so running them as low as possible makes for more downforce gains than handling deficiencies improving overall laptimes.

and breathe.....

Thank you

 

[Soot1e]

And what he said^^^^^