Lasers and Computers – Chassis Measurement Part 2

Sorry for the delay, but it’s racing season and been quite busy!

So once you’ve got your dots on paper, time to boot up your laptop and start measuring. You’ve already got a table of the “Z” values that you took while doing the laser measurements, so keep those handy.

Every suspension software will have a little bit of a different input. Suspension Analyzer treats Z as the vertical axis, X as the lateral position from centerline of the car, and Y as the longitudinal distance from centerline of the axles. Positive is out from center of car for X, above ground for Z, to the rear of the car for Y (in the front), and to the front of the car for Y (in the back). Slightly confusing, but the graphical interface will draw your suspension as you go so it’ll help you if you end up switching the Y values… I won’t go through all the inputs, but take your time. Garbage input in = garbage input out! Below is roughly what your car will look like when done (with input data blanked – can’t give away any secrets!)

So, now you know some of the critical values. From here you can adjust the pickup points, put the car into a turn to see what happens and more. Below is the car in 2 degrees of roll.