This may not be in the right place....but as an ex race engineer for three well known teams I have read the current rules regarding rear suspension set-up on F2's.

Birdcaging not allowed....?

I have been looking at various cars recently that are still running this concept in a different form......with rotation of the axle still being achieved via linkages located elsewhere on the chassis, and the torque of the axle being controlled via a damper between the drivers knees......... I believe if this advantage is to be alleviated then the rules should read....

'no de-coupled rear suspension set-ups allowed'

Perhaps car builders / scrutineers would like to post their views.

av wondered that myself there is a few other cars out there with the linkages able to rotate on the chassis rather than on the axle... surely thats the same thing

if it is a different form of birdcaging then it isn't a birdcage is it?

nothing new in a 5th link big boy, but you don't really need one in an f2 despite what may have been tried...

believe me, there's so many more things that can be done, some legal, some not... and they'll all come into play in the next few months...

you'll never stop progress... or smart thinkers...

beaks

u can stop em if u ban them

Totally agree,

It is a different way of 'birdcaging', if you want to call it that......but Brisca banned this to alleviate the advantage it gave.......but didn't realise that the concept of a birdcage is based on a de-coupled rear suspension........

The rules should have read 'no de-coupled' if they wanted to stop the advantage and bring the cars back to 4-link, 3-link etc......

The current RCE cars use a variation of the 'birdcage', in that it is a de-coupled design....still allowing axle rotation...which is probably better than the birdcage anyway!!

More info on this can be found in 'Race Car vehicle Dynamics' by Milliken and Milliken, book costs £80....!!

Don't think the BOC have this book....., think RCE have though!!

And now we're stuck with the current rules for three years!!

always found the steve smith books better -- the theory is the same no matter what car you run, however these are more for oval racing, albeit of the american kind

toot toot

hungary beaks

Rules are rules and if broken should be punished.

hello can some one tell me what book you need

'Race Car vehicle Dynamics' by Milliken and Milliken

he has a cupple of book's

i want to learn more about the rear suspension types
and about the RCE suspension

i hope someone can help me

I had often thought what was the little plastic box thing on the side of an rce for where the link arms are mounted, I take it this is where the birdcage effect is going on is it? The two arms located on to one mounting point which is allowed to rotate in effect allowing the axle to rotate. And this was to hide it.....sneaky huh.
Am I right in thinking this is what you mean?????? Or totaly wrong just trying to understand thats all.

thanks smurf 826

i think what they are on about is the the rear axle having part coming forward and attaching via suspension parts inside the cabs!

And i know whats under RCE's secret black pods lol

Its the torque arm he's on about which works similar to the birdcage ie, letting the axle rotate slightly under throttle which of course changes the diff angle and providing more grip out of the bend

Cheers thompa thats exactly what i ment and thought it was.

I was right cool lol

smurf 826

I realise that this thread is somewhat old now and the points to which i will reply are some of the very early ones, however, respond i will!

Decoupled suspension... The term decoupled when applied to a suspension system refers to the means by which its degrees of freedom are constrained and the components used for this. By this very definition any multilink rear end on an f2 be it 3 link, 4 link, even the 'a' frame system is to some extent decoupled in as much as not all potential movements of the axle are constrained by the same component.

The most coupled system for a live axle would be the leaf spring system with no additional lateral restraint in the form of a panard bar, jacobs ladder, watts linkage etc, etc...

I for one am glad that the rule book said 'no birdcages' rather than 'no decoupled systems'.

As for the side covers... there are a number of varaitions of systems inside and its fair for me to say that each car has a system suited to its driver and the track being raced at. The reason it is covered is the same reason i dont publish engineering drawings of my cars on the internet. Each RCE race car is an on-going development and as such the technical spec can change regularly in an attempt to remain competetive.

Cheers,

DR

You took your time in replying to this david!