10 - Suspension

Abstract

The stability and effective handling of a vehicle depends upon the designers' selection of the optimum steering and suspension geometry, which particularly includes the wheel camber, castor, and kingpin inclination. The front suspension may be either a MacPherson strut or a transverse double wishbone arm arrangement, whereas the rear suspension is of the trailing arm type. Front and rear anti-roll bars are incorporated to increase the body roll stiffness and to actuate both front and rear height correction valves. The suspension spring units comprise two main parts—a steel spherical canister containing a rubber diaphragm that separates the nitrogen spring media from the displacement fluid; and a steel cylinder and piston that relays the suspension's vertical deflection movement to the rubber diaphragm by displacing the fluid. Automatic height correction is achieved by varying the volume of incompressible fluid between the sphered diaphragm and the piston. Increased vehicle weight lowers the body, thus causing the suspension arms to deflect and at the same time rotate the anti-roll bar. The angular rotation of the anti-roll bar is a measure of the suspension's vertical deflection relative to the vehicle's normal static height.