Double wishbone suspension

I know it's the best sporty setup. Can someone tell me why?

And also, how does one go about tesigning the setup? I mean the lenghts of the lower/upper A-arms, and also the length of the forward and rear rods in the a-arms. And also all sorts of angles (vast question, I know). I'm just very very curious to learn as much as possible, hope you don't mind my questions (and I have a lot of them to come! :D)

Thanks,
Alex

Double wishbone suspension is the best setup because it reacts to bodyroll less then any other type of independant suspension, they also let you have a large amount of vertical travel without the wheels angle (camber) being changed, the C5 corvette fo example, it has 0 camber change through 95% of its vertical travel, it uses a double wishbone setup. the other types of independant suspensions are trailing & semi trailing arm, swing axle, and multi link, they just use different ways of controlling the wheel and how they attatch to the structure of the car.

Originally posted by FYRHWK1
Double wishbone suspension is the best setup because it reacts to bodyroll less then any other type of independant suspension, they also let you have a large amount of vertical travel without the wheels angle (camber) being changed, the C5 corvette fo example, it has 0 camber change through 95% of its vertical travel, it uses a double wishbone setup. the other types of independant suspensions are trailing & semi trailing arm, swing axle, and multi link, they just use different ways of controlling the wheel and how they attatch to the structure of the car.
I wouldn't say it reacts less... I'd say that the wheels maintain more surface area on the road.

Body roll isn't the only thing double wishbone suspension is good at. Bumps and stuff are easily absorbed too.

So is it as good for luxury cars as it is for sporty cars?

Yes. Better handling benefits us all. But double wishbones do take up more space than, say, MacPherson struts, and leg room is definitely higher up on the Good Things list for luxocars than sports cars.

So when designing this kind of suspension, what are the benefits/downsides of having 1 wishbone longer than the other?

The camber angle remains nearly unchanged when you have body roll.
The downside is the chamber angle change at bumps.

Nonparallel unequal length arms just happen to have less camber change (larger contact patch).

This should help explain: http://autozine.kyul.net/technical_school/handling/tech_handling_1.htm

Originally posted by 454Casull

I wouldn't say it reacts less... I'd say that the wheels maintain more surface area on the road.

Body roll isn't the only thing double wishbone suspension is good at. Bumps and stuff are easily absorbed too.

by reacts less I mean that the contact patch stays relatively unchanged, although it does happen, and bumps are just sudden vertical travel.