I am one of the grizzled old veterans who remembers that the original rubber
puck dimensions proposed in 1983 was a suggestion to start with and never was
intended to remain the same over all these years. The problem with the current
rubber puck dimension is that it bottoms out way too fast on compression and
launches the chassis in the air. If one hits a series of bumps at just the
right intervals, a pogo stick effect results in a momentary loss of steering
control - a very scary thing at higher speeds. I am hoping that Jay Novak's
much appreciated research will produce a rubber cylinder that will continue to
compress longer before bottoming out. Over the years, I have promoted the F500
class to others by having them drive my car at autocross events and every
single one of these drivers have gotten out of the car saying that the
suspension was way too stiff/bouncy for them to really enjoy the experience
with all the painful bruises on their bodies. Thus, this negative !
impression has been passed around (word of mouth) to many others in the club
over the years and has hurt the class reputation and resulted in lower entry
numbers. Changing the dimensions for the shock tube and the bellcranks along
with the tuning needed to optimize this "new" suspension will be well worth it
if it improves our class reputation within the club, thus attracting more
people. Once we have this better suspension, a concerted effort from eveyone
on this list to get the word out and change people's minds about our class is
extremely important.
BTW, my two home autox sites in Atlanta are bumpy asphalt and my beat up old
body would really appreciate a better ride.
Jim
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