Originally Posted by
bkspeedo
This is just a guess but i think one of the benefits of the short shock on a T4 aside from a minor CG change is the shock angle. If you look at the angle on most T4 setups there laid down quit a bit more than the T3 and other cars. Which i believe would make the shock more progressive as it compresses than a shock standing up. If I'm thinking about this correctly the car would be the stiffest when it starts to roll and get softer as it rollers further.
Look at the shock angle on a 1/8 scale or 1/10 nitro car, there laid down at probably a 35-40deg angle from parallel to the ground.
Opinions?
Sorry for not getting back sooner.
Actually the stiffness increases as the chassis rolls on the compression side. The spring stiffness relative to the wheel is a function of the cosine of the shock angle squared. The angle is measure from a line perpendicular to the suspension arm. As the chassis rolls the shock angle relative to the arm actually decreases on the compression side. That means the stiffness increases as the chassis rolls. The amount of change is very small when the shock angle is small (close to perpendicular) and becomes more prominent as the shock angle increases.