Sim Racing Setup Guide 05 – Suspension Springs

hello fellow sim racers and welcome to part 5 of this sim racing setup guide in which we're discussing Springs if you've not seen the first four parts than a link to a playlist containing all my setup videos should be in the top right hand corner of your screen [Music] as I mentioned back in the first part of the series it's important to think about setup changes as part of a wider system and to keep in mind how a change to one component may impact the rest of the car this is especially important when it comes

to Springs as they both impacts and are impacted by ride height and zero-bar settings and aerodynamic changes in a road car the suspension is designed to be a compromise between handling and comfort but in a race car we've really only care about performance if you recall from the first video I mentioned that the rule of thumb is that softer suspension setup generally means more grip while that's true in isolation it becomes much more complex when you start to factor in other variables like load ride height track surface and crucially the impacts of aerodynamic downforce so

when determining what spring rates to run there's a lot to consider and by changing the springs you can make some really quite drastic alterations to the way the car behaves a moment ago I mentioned spring rate simply put that's the force needed to compress a spring by a specified amount in imperial that's a measurement of pounds per inch and in metric its kilograms or Newton's per millimeter for simracing purposes the number doesn't really matter and all you really need to know is that the bigger the number the stiffer the spring is you may also see

reference to wheel rate this is essentially the force needed to compress the entire suspension assembly by a specified amount in simple terms it's the compressive force of the spring after you take into account the leverage of the suspension assembly the overall stiffness of your suspension setup is impacted by the load that's placed upon it and heavier cars generally need stiffer Springs you also need to take into account the load placed on the springs by aerodynamics but more about that later generally speaking spring rates should also reflect the cars weight distribution so for example a front-wheel

drive car with a 60-40 weight distribution will need stiffer springs on the front than on the rear [Music] as a rule we want to run our cars as close to the ground as possible not only does it look better but a lower center of gravity is a massive help when it comes to cornering and those pesky aerodynamics we keep talking about usually work best at very low ride heights generally speaking running a car lower means higher rated Springs so bear in mind that if you reduce the ride height you may need to increase the spring

rate to stop the car bottoming out over bumps modern circuits are often blessed with billiard-table smooth asphalt but some older venues can be a bit more characterful on a smoother track surface you'll be able to run a lower ride height and stiffer springs but on a more bumpy track that may not be the case and don't forget about the curbs they count as bumps - at least as far as your suspension is concerned [Music] this is where things can get a little bit more tricky when it comes to cars that rely on aerodynamic downforce there

are two things to consider first of all to keep the aerodynamics working efficiently it's critical to maintain a very stable ride height and secondly aerodynamic downforce applies more load to the suspension we'll be talking about aerodynamics in a later video so don't worry too much about specifics for now it's enough to know that car that generates a lot of downforce will need to be set up with stiffer Springs than a car that relies entirely on mechanical grip something else to consider is that some modern high Aero cars have what's known as a third spring or

heave spring this is an additional spring in the suspension setup that's only compressed or relaxed when the car is subjected to pitch changes by running a stiff hue spring and softer wheel Springs this allows the car to be set up incredibly rigidly from a perspective of pitch but still be compliant enough to keep the tires in contact with the ground during roll movement in the corners because of how the anti-roll bars and springs interact I try to mentally separate the two ideally I try to use the anti-roll bars to alter the balance of the car

during cornering as they only resist lateral roll this leaves the main springs as a tool to adjust how the car maintains ride height pitch as well as how it navigates bumps and curbs however the two are inexorably linked and it's important to understand the knock-on effect that comes with altering spring rates in a non Aero car I'll often try to lower the spring rate equally on all four corners to see if it will provide more grip without negatively impacting the handling if the car starts to bottom out then I've gone too far in a narrow

car it's certainly worth trying but if you start to feel a loss of grip at high speed corners it's usually a sign that the aerodynamics and no longer working efficiently you can also use spring rate adjustments to alter the balance of grip if you soften the springs at the front of the car your front tires will have more grip pushing the car towards arm or oversteer II balance if you soften the springs at the rear then you'll move towards a more understeer II balance and of course the inverse is also true so if you find

that anti-roll bar adjustments aren't getting you the desired results I would then consider altering the spring rates of one end of the car but be aware of the knock-on effect that may have on the rest of the setup it's very easy to start chasing your tail so that's about all I have to say about Springs in the next video we're going to be talking about the black magic that is dampers I hope you enjoyed the video if you did then it would be great if you could hit the like button and subscribe to my channel

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