Lowering suspension and camber

[Tony]

Example based on the Lexus chassis.

 

All cars are in essence two parallelograms, consisting in the sprung (body) and unsprung (chassis). The suspension configuration between the two is an "A arm" sprung and a wishbone of sorts unsprung. Then we have the coil-over-oil suspension unit.

 

Assuming an unmodified car has the correct camber positions then the radius if the A arm and the wishbone are the same despite the difference in their length.

 

If the car is lowered the radius is no longer the same. in fact the longer lower wishbone is disproportionate to the radii of the upper, widening the unsprung wheel track displacing the camber.

 

It's not all doom and gloom though. A lowered car tends to have a less fluid suspension so the dynamic camber gains are reduced. This offers an "affordable" static camber position, enhancing the handling and lowering the centre of gravity.

 

The consequences of lowering is not an exact law. With the myriad of suspension designs some cars will suffer little camber gains, whereas cars with multi link suspension will suffer massive camber gains.