| Talus1 |
01-02-2016 07:03 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meanderchap
(Post 2496585)
Thanks! What do you mean by "smaller impact on steering feel?" +45 would retain the lightness of the stock steering feel?
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Steering feel is complex and I'm no expert, but... Going from the low grip OEM 215 section tires to higher grip, wider tires is going to increase steering effort but not necessarily the feel. You'll notice the increased effort especially at parking lot speeds.
Moving the center of the contact patch outward by 13mm vs 3mm (stock is +48) will have its own effect, but it won't be large. There is precious little info on the Web about the effects of increasing scrub radius, independent of other geometry changes (caster, camber), but what little there is seems to indicate that the effects are minimal until you get to big positive or negative numbers. Back in the bad old days, RWD cars ran very large positive scrub radii (3-4") and had lots of kickback at the steering wheel. FWD cars started the move to negative scrub radii. In fact, VW ran ads in the 70s about how negative scrub radius (I think they called it "steering roll radius") on the Golf/Rabbit made them more stable under braking and acceleration on split surfaces (one wheel on ice or gravel). They had less steering kick back over bumps, but I also thought they had less "feel" because of it.
I've never seen a published scrub radius for the Twins, but I suspect it is slightly negative (~-20mm???), like most modern strut suspended cars. The effect of making it slightly less negative with wheel offset is likely small in comparison to the effect of the much wider tires.
The engineer in me wishes I had the $$ to do a direct comparison - same tires, different wheel offsets. :bonk:
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