DeTomaso Mailing List: January 98, Message #107
     



From: 	GRR456 <GRR456@aol.com>

Subject: Re: Sway Bars [part 1]

Date: 	Mon, 5 Jan 1998 08:41:59 +0000



All..



Well, the only way you can check to see if your chassis is flexing is to

strategically mount and place LVDT's around suspect chassis flex points.

That way you can get actual data.  We placed a data aquisition system on one

of our stock cars and the results were amazing. We did realize that we were

getting almost .10" flex, in the middle of the turns, where the flex would be

the greatest. The flex was in the front clip section. That way we could design

a correct solution.



We even had infra-red sensors, to detect the tire temps as you go thru the

corners. We found out when we checked our tire temps with our conventional

pyrometer, it showed that we consistantly needed more camber in the right

front. But when we used the sensors (3 per tire - 12 total), it showed that we

had too much camber thru the turns. As soon as we corrected the camber, the

corner speed picked up.



The data aquisition system consisted of  4 shock position sensors, 12 tire

temp sensors, brake pedal position sensor, throttle position sensor, actual

track position sensor (GPS), steering wheel position sensor, infra-red ride

height position sensors, 6 chassis sensors, 2 accelerometers(sp), 4 wheel

speed indicators, tach hook-up and a data box.  It took about 6 hours to hook

everything up, and lots of Velcro....



At this point in time, that would be the only practical way to correctly

design a good chassis stiffening system.  Solid modeling and a stress analysis

would probably cost about $100,000...Almost as much as a titanium rod motor!

HA...



Regards...............Gary