FLEMKE has set a trend.

[Le Man]

More independent suspension mods to an F1, this time by LMP Cars Japan. Using a set of Fine Attitude dampers. It would be interesting to know, what their set up objectives were and if they achieved a satisfactory result.

[hurstg01]

Nice find

[volvoman]

Where did you find that ??

Russ

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by volvoman

Where did you find that ??

Russ

On the LMP cars website.

www.lmpcars.com

Search around their site and you will find more F1 related articles. They also run a blog, but I cannot find the link at the moment. Best to run it through translation, makes it easier for reading.opcorn:

You will also find pics like this!! proves the F1 is just like any other car, when your stuck in a traffic jam (240mph, 627bhp etc etc)

[volvoman]

Russ

[hurstg01]

It was a good way to 'lose' 30 mins whilst the kids were asleep to add to my F1 photo collection!. Cheers Le Man

[hurstg01]

I have just received another email from one of my contacts 'close' to an F1 , who states the use of these dampers is an odd thing to do, as they aren't adjustable.

Damper technology hasn't changed much in the past 15-20 years since the F1 was born, bar a change to light(er) weight materials and in size. If you made a fundamental change to the springs or tyres, then you would want to consider a damper change. In that case, however, you would want adjustable dampers so that you could experiment with settings and tune to what worked best. These new dampers are not adjustable, so he doesn't know what the point of the change was, unless for the purpose of marketing the dampers and unrelated to how well they worked on this particular car (in which case it was a good idea). Getting damping rates right takes a lot of work, and it certainly cannot be done, especially on a retrofit basis, simply by building to a theoretical curve and expecting the fixed result to be optimal.

Take it from someone who knows, these dampers, although probably excellent dampers on a normal road car, won't provide a meaningful performance improvement on an F1.

, and thanks for the compliment

[Le Man]

Hi Greg,

Interesting to read your contacts comments.

As I stated in my first post "It would be interesting to know what their set up objectives were" Although most damper/spring development can be expensive and time consuming. I enjoyed reading the translated Japanese text "F1 damper development was a pain in the leg". In the end, most of the results will come from a subjective angle ie the feeling and response you get from the car and compared to what exactly you were looking for in the first place. A four way damper is an ideal place to start for adjustability, then changing oil grades, valves, etc etc. In this case the spring change (if the rate has been changed) will have made a noteable difference, either way good or bad. But as I have not driven an F1, I am not in a position to comment if there is an improvement required or not. But as I have seen from the F1,s attitude change to power on, power off by some drivers in video footage. Some bump and rebound damping could be added to the standard F1,s damper set up, for track use. After all the F1 is a grand touring car and not a bone jarring track tool.

[hurstg01]

I have had more info from one of my contacts 'close' to an F1 who has pointed me in the direction of a "paper about the F1's suspension. It was written by the designer, Steve Randle, in 1993. It details the conceptual process that they undertook, as well as some testing results; it also includes excellent drawings".

I have a pdf copy of this but it's marked 'DO NOT SHARE' as I have been asked to not share it by the person who gave it to me. I would love to pass it back to my contact [who I am sure the person who provided it to me wouldn't mind me doing so] as he cannot locate his copy; hopefully he will email me an email address I can send it to.


Greg

[zx4000]

Hi all. Its been a long time since i was not here. Some may know me, but most of don't.

In fact, this suspension is made by the FINE ATTITUDE. the founder of this company got through Mclaren, Ferrari and Benetton Formula one team turned into Renault F1 in 2002, who had ever been in full charge of suspension setting of Senna, Michael Schumacher.