XV Level II Suspension - First Pics

[dqhemi]

Some of you may have seen the track testing of our Level I suspension on Dream Car Garage this week. We were very happy how well it worked and I'll post some pics of that later in a separate thread if you'd like to see them.

I think you'll like the pics below. It's our Level II suspension being fitted on our 71 Cuda engineering car for 4-post Tests, which we did yesterday.

The setup is a complete re-design of the stock Mopar suspension - and almost all of it is done in aluminum.

Up front it is an SLA double A-Arm w/ geometry optimized given packaging constraints. K-member, spindles and a-arms are all aluminum. Stock steering box is replaced with a quick ratio rack.

Out back, replacing the leaf springs, we did a three link setup with panhard bar. Lower links are CNC'd from billet aluminum and the panhard bar is aluminum. Upper link may be done in aluminum, but we haven't decided yet - prototype piece is steel.

Coilovers at all four corners.

Brakes are 6-piston 14" up front. Car now fits 275's up front and we have 290's on the back with quite a bit of room to go bigger now that the leaf springs are gone.

Pics are from the car going together so not the best and only got a couple shots of the rear. Will get better one's. Sway bars are not installed yet in the pics - those are pretty good looking as well.

This setup was four posted yesterday and is getting track tested next week. You'll be able to see it on Dream Car Garage soon as well.

John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com

[dqhemi]

I don't have any real good shots of the rear. You can see the billet lower arm though and the other shows panhard mount and mount for third link.

Other pics show XV001, our forst production car going together. In the first shot you can see the mount for the upper ctrl arm and the coilover as well as some of the chassis stiffening we did. Others show how we replaced the lower rad support with some mandrel bent square tubing to tie the frame rails together - again for chassis stiffening. And you can also see how the suspension setup let us clean up the engine bay.

XV001 is being built to look just like a 70 Challenger T/A, but with our badging and more than a few upgrades. Power will be a worked 6.1 HEMI with a modified Viper spec T56 6-speed.

This car is now being assembled and will be completed by month end and running hot laps at Mosport by the end of the month. Last epoisode of Dream Car Garage will show this car all done and the track footage at Mosport.

John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com

[dqhemi]

These pics are from the 4-post testing done yesterday of our 71 Cuda engineering car with the Level II suspension and brakes on it.

The four post testing allows dialing on of the spring rates and shock valving as well as evaluation of many aspects of what the suspension is doing and identifying imbalances or anomalies. Each pad has a load sensor and accelerometer in it. Two additional accelerometers are placed at each corner on the wheel and body. A linear potentiometer is also hooked up between the wheel and body to measure travel.

Runs are made at varying speeds with the data logged and then run through proprietary models. Results are analyzed and recommendations made for a change to the car, the change made and process repeated.

Part of the results include a performance index and a comfort index. Depending on the application you try and optimize these values - you can guess which is more important to us. The lower the value the better.

Results were very, very good. Our Level I suspension previously tested came in at .41. Level II by the end of the day we got down to .095. We'll see what that equates to at the track, but it is better than expected and very promising.

The suspension engineer evaluating all of the data looks for any anomalies. He identified one at a specific frequency in the back of the car. When runs are made the pads move up and down slowly first in large moves then less and less distance at faster rates until it is barel perceptible it is even moving.

They were able to run the rig continuously at that frequency while we went under the car to inspect what was going on. We found a mount that had some flex and was showing up in the data at this frequency. It'll get fixed before the car goes to the track, but its things like that we would never be able to find without equipment like this or spend huge time trying to track it down.

When we ran the Level I suspension after the 4-post it only needed a couple of adjustments at the track - it was very good right out of the box based upon the 4-post testing and dial in.

John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com

[XcYZ]

Awesome stuff, John! The segments on Dream Car Garage have been fantastic. I love all the behind the scenes info and the science of the development. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

[dqhemi]

Originally Posted by XcYZ

Awesome stuff, John! The segments on Dream Car Garage have been fantastic. I love all the behind the scenes info and the science of the development. I'm definitely looking forward to more.

Glad you are liking it all!

We're very happy with how things have come together and we have gotten access to some pretty amazing technology and expertise.

John Buscema
XV Motorsports
www.xvmotorsports.com