Chassis flex, huh, yeah. What is it good for? Uh-huh. Chassis flex, huh, yeah.
01-28-2015, 10:12 AM
#16
That makes sense. All the non-ideal static friction type stuff is going to be orders of magnitudes less than "ideal" spring & damper forces on a real car. On the RC car it's not that way, but the chassis acts like a pretty good ideal spring for small displacements.
01-28-2015, 03:31 PM
#19
After reading the above link, i interpret it like: if you have enough experience with the car and track, you should (especially at higher grip levels) run a more stiff chassis. But just look at the Worlds in Kissimee, most drivers were driving quite soft flex setup.
To come back to the theory of gaining maximum grip on an uneven surface: Carpet is very very soft compared to asphalt (literally :-D). And the bumpes are completely different (for example a kink in the carpet). The bumpes are maybe higher amplitude but at much lower frequency.
So the benefits of the soft chassis (lower wheel load alteration) doesn`t show up really, but the negative effect (less responsive to suspension setup changes) show up even more because of higher cornering g-forces.
To come back to the theory of gaining maximum grip on an uneven surface: Carpet is very very soft compared to asphalt (literally :-D). And the bumpes are completely different (for example a kink in the carpet). The bumpes are maybe higher amplitude but at much lower frequency.
So the benefits of the soft chassis (lower wheel load alteration) doesn`t show up really, but the negative effect (less responsive to suspension setup changes) show up even more because of higher cornering g-forces.
I think the softer setups were to allow the car the transition more smoothly and help maintain the grip.
01-29-2015, 04:14 AM
#20
Tech Master
I've seen a few people declare that flex is all wrong, bla bla bla, and also seen a few that have done something about it. However, I haven't yet seen someone "do something about it" and decide that they were correct.
01-29-2015, 08:21 AM
#21
So when I got back into TC in 2008 and saw all these flexy chassis, I was initially in the "this is all crap, they should be super-stiff" camp. But with a bit more experience of the modern cars I quickly realised I was wrong, and that the chassis flex is very helpful. Its used as a setup tool, it widens the setup window, and it allows the car to absorb bumps/curbs without running the main springs super-soft (and having the car drag on the floor).
I guess the things that changed in my time out were that the motors got a lot more powerful, and the tyres got harder (and therefore less grippy) to cope with this power. So flex came in to help us cope with all this.
If you're running a 25.5t motor on super-soft tyres, you can probably dig out a TC3 and kick some ass. For the rest of us... flex is here to stay.
01-29-2015, 08:36 AM
#22
I used to race TC back in the 90s (and stopped in 2002). Although there were some flexible cars in the early days, the stiff chassis cars generally ruled the roost. The very stiff TC3 was the king of TC for years.
So when I got back into TC in 2008 and saw all these flexy chassis, I was initially in the "this is all crap, they should be super-stiff" camp. But with a bit more experience of the modern cars I quickly realised I was wrong, and that the chassis flex is very helpful. Its used as a setup tool, it widens the setup window, and it allows the car to absorb bumps/curbs without running the main springs super-soft (and having the car drag on the floor).
I guess the things that changed in my time out were that the motors got a lot more powerful, and the tyres got harder (and therefore less grippy) to cope with this power. So flex came in to help us cope with all this.
If you're running a 25.5t motor on super-soft tyres, you can probably dig out a TC3 and kick some ass. For the rest of us... flex is here to stay.
So when I got back into TC in 2008 and saw all these flexy chassis, I was initially in the "this is all crap, they should be super-stiff" camp. But with a bit more experience of the modern cars I quickly realised I was wrong, and that the chassis flex is very helpful. Its used as a setup tool, it widens the setup window, and it allows the car to absorb bumps/curbs without running the main springs super-soft (and having the car drag on the floor).
I guess the things that changed in my time out were that the motors got a lot more powerful, and the tyres got harder (and therefore less grippy) to cope with this power. So flex came in to help us cope with all this.
If you're running a 25.5t motor on super-soft tyres, you can probably dig out a TC3 and kick some ass. For the rest of us... flex is here to stay.
Foam vs Rubber ..... It took me a bit to re-learn the new ways when I came back and into the brushless/lipo/rubber era.
01-29-2015, 09:13 AM
#23
Tech Regular
The chassis is a spring with a spring rate like a coil spring or torsion bar. The major difference is that the chassis 'spring' is uncontrolled with damping.
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