Tires and Traction
Suspension tuning is all about optimizing the grip of the tires. The best upgrade you can get for your car is nearly always the tires! Being the only part that actually connects the chassis to the ground, tires are the most important part of ANY car and are critical to the suspension. Race teams often dedicate entire engineers just to the tires, and those teams have valuable engineering data direct from the manufacturer to help them with their tire decisions.
Unfortunately, neither you nor your local tire shop will ever get that kind of data. However, we can look at some general behaviors of tires and make very educated assumptions about how a tire is reacting. These round pieces of rubber are quite complex in the way they deform as you ride or slide around a track, and thus begins the complexities of tires in suspension design. In these articles, we will explore some of the complexities.