R&D Car
The Indy Car Suspension, Code Name Vector
For a long time, I had wanted to build a push rod type suspension chassis on a dirt track 600cc sprint. In 2002, I finally had the resources and time to build one. The car was raced 5 times that year with good results. The chassis tends to be tighter in the turns than our standard coil over car, due to the leverage the bell cranks have on the springs and shocks. There is a lot better control over the shock rates and spring rates on this type suspension. This is due to the force of the suspension being transmitted to the shocks and springs through a radius (via the bell cranks), the rates are now progressive or digressive instead of linear as in a traditional suspension. The progressive rates allow you to have a soft spring rate at ride height and then stiffen up as the car hits a bump or rolls. This effect will allow the car to be tighter and have a more comfortable driver feel.
On this chassis we used dual front brakes actuated by separate master cylinders. There are two master cylinders operated by one pedal with a bias adjustable pivot point. The brake set up needed some fine tuning but now it works like it was designed. You get a lot of stopping power without pulling the car to the left as with a left front brake only design. This was also the first chassis to which we applied the new deluxe Hyper spindles and steering arms.
Although this car was a lot of fun to build and race, it is not feasible for us to produce these as general consumer cars. They are just too complicated and the advantage is minimal. I need to spend my time and efforts developing new setups for our more popular suspensions (torsion and coil over). We learned a lot building this car and will apply some of the designs and concepts to our new production chassis.
