Alright! We've got geometry and everything. I like it when the discussion goes this way...
> Suppose you've shortened left end.
> Now hold the right wheel and push
> the left wheel up.
Unfortunately, in a real world situation the unsprung weight (the car's chassis) is reacting to this jounce (pushing up) of the left wheel (you're in right hand turn) and the right wheel is now in droop (pushing down). The right wheel is now reacting to the torque at the center of the anti-roll bar.
Again, it goes back to the false premise that each end of the anti-roll bar is working in isolation.
> You need to apply different force
> on the rignt and on the left to
> twist the bar the same amount.
But that force is compensated for because the opposite side of the bar reacts accordingly. In a perfect laboratory scenario, where you have a rigid, stationary mass that the anti-roll bar is attached to in the center, your example works.
On a vehicle going around a race track, the unspruing rate rolls. And the unsprung weight of the vehicle is what the anti-roll is affecting, not the suspension. So, the unsprung weight could care less about 100 lbs of jounce on the left and 50 lbs of droop on the right, it just sees 150 lbs of resistance (weight transfer) as transmitted to it via the center of the anti-roll bar.
Easy huh?
P.S: Oops! When I said "unsprung wieght" in the above, I actually menat "sprung weight."
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John Coffey
johnc@betamotorsports.com
[This message has been edited by johnc (edited November 13, 2000).]
