What type of suspension tuning is best from a handling standpoint?
Courtesy of Steve Cutchen: From a handling standpoint, ideal is to keep all four wheels in contanct with the ground all of the time, and loaded evenly. Each tire then absorbs as close to the same loads as possible… and the sum of all of that means more cornering force can be generated. Springs force a tire back down (or allow it to go up) after a hole (or a bump). If you’ve ever seen an unloaded trailer bouncing along behind a car, you can get an idea for what would happen with no springs. Shock absorbers dampen the spring movement so that the movement stops as soon as practical after the bump. This keeps the spring motions from continuing to “bounce” the car, which would lessen contact after the bump. If you push or pull on a shock absorber, you’ll notice that it is very hard to move. Springs alone would allow tires to bounce like a basketball. Stiff springs also resist rolling, which helps keep load transitions from becoming large, since large movements due to rolling are additiona
