This book is an introduction to the elementary technology of automobile
suspensions. Inevitably steering geometry must be included in the text,
since the dynamic steering behaviour, road-holding and cornering
behaviour are all influenced by the suspension design. Steering
mechanisms and steering components are not covered in this book. This is
not a mathematical treatise, but only a fool or a genius would attempt
to design a motor vehicle without mathematics. The mathematics used in
this book should present no problem to a first-year university student.
SI units have been used in general, but for the benefit of those not
familiar with them we have included in brackets, in many cases, the
equivalent values in Imperial units. Many engineers regard the Pascal as
an impractical unit of pressure. The author has therefore expressed
pressures in bars (1 bar = 105Pa). A deviation from SI units is the use
of degrees and minutes, instead of radians, to express camber, castor,
roll angles, etc. This is still common practice in the motor industry.
No attempt has been made to make any stress calculations on suspension
components. The automobile engineering student will have access to other
textbooks on such subjects as strength of materials and theory of
structures.