Originally Posted by
onadcr74
"Shortening the front arm length will give you less steering, and the car will drive much smoother."
"The longer arm length will help slow the reactions of the car, making it feel less twitchy."
OK, which is it? I took these two quotes from just a few posts ago. Seems to me they are contradicting each other. Of course, I guess, depending on how you look at it, less steering and twitchy could be two totally separate things. A car could have less steering but still feel twitchy, but the way I'm reading them is that the one is saying that the shorter arm is smoother and the other is saying the longer arm is "less twitchy" or as I take it, smoother. So, which is it, shorter VLA smoother or longer VLA smoother? Or is it me being a dumb ass.......again.
I think the contradiction comes from trying to simplify the explanations of something that is in fact quite complex.
I look at it from the point of view of what affect on geometry does this change have, and what is an equivalent adjustment I can relate it to in order to better understand what is going on.
For the VLA option, I think of if this way: going from short to long VLA (without changing anything else) changes two basic things I already understand. 1) It is the same as going to a slightly softer front spring. This is because a longer front arm allows the wheel to apply more leverage to the shocks so you basically end up with a softer front spring. 2) It is similar to lengthening the camber link in its affect on roll center. A longer link allows the car to roll more.
So depending on the rest of your car's setup, softening the front spring and lengthening the front camber link may make the car twitchy, or it might calm the car down. It's very possible both excerpts from both manuals are correct when applied to the manual's respective cars.