3 replies to this topic

[MrSlow]

How do they adjust the ride height of a formula car?
Is it only by spring preload?

[desmo]

My favorite is how Ferrari use bolted-in replacable spacers between the pushrod and its end.

[Greg Locock]

I don't know how they do it, but our development cars with struts have threaded spring caps, so you just release the lock nut, and wind it up or down. They could use gas pressure in the shocks, but that is rather risky to do on the fly, since the probability of letting a bit of oil out is too great.

[JwS]

Using spring perch position to adjust ride height is a crude method, it only works if you have alot of extra damper travel that you aren't using, F1 cars dont. Typical motorcycle practice is to have an adjustable length shock, one of the spherical bearings on the end is threaded. I imagine that they use something more along these lines, probably hard spacers though, because threads with locknuts are not really precise.
JwS