Strut vs. SLA

Earlier today, some friends and I were discussing road racing suspension setups; specifically Macpherson Strut and Short-Arm/Long-Arm.

Many people I know believe the strut design to be capable of performing as well as an SLA setup (the amount of camber gain being one of the main arguements). In my own opinion a well-designed SLA system will easily outperform even the best of strut designs.

Hypothetically speaking let's say that Car A has an SLA setup and can achieve 30 degrees of camber gain; and Car B has struts, some of my friends say that Car B should be able to achieve very near 30 degrees of camber gain; other friends, including myself, agree that this just is not possible.

What are your thoughts on the two designs? Has one been proven to be better than the other?

Without a doubt, struts are a good way of getting a car on the road for the minimum amount of design dollar. They are very adequate at providing a suitable camber curve for 99% of drivers.

An SLA is more expensive to design and takes more room, but the infinite and composite curves you can build into an SLA setup are way beyond what is possible with struts. The camber curve of a typical (fixed top) strut could never achieve the camber extent that an SLA could... not to mention, its cambering the wrong way during compression. Its not always about the AMOUNT of articulation, its about getting the RIGHT articulation in the CORRECT direction. At that, SLAs excel beyond struts.

Earlier today, some friends and I were discussing road racing suspension setups; specifically Macpherson Strut and Short-Arm/Long-Arm.
What are your thoughts on the two designs? Has one been proven to be better than the other?

I think the majority of handbuilt roadrace cars answers your question hands down... The suspension of choice is the SLA. You will not see ANY McPherson Strut front suspensions utilized in Nascar, ASA, Truck, Modifieds or whatever, that allows the option. The only place you see struts is in SCCA style class racing where it is required to use the car as manufactured with minimal changes to geometry or components.
The tunability & strength of the SLA is leaps and bounds above a strut suspension and any seriously well handling car (like the Corvette & Solstice) will still use the technology.
If you really want to impress your friends with your knowledge read up on suspension design and tuning here...
http://www.longacreracing.com/articles/artcat.asp?CATID=2
Mark

Everything you guys just told me is everthing I thought and had told my friends; now I am just more sure of my beliefs. Thanks for clearing things up for us.