Our overall aim was to make the camber more negative. One way we did this was by narrowing the upper control arm.
Kathryn
Shorter Length of Upper Control Arm
To make the camber more negative
This is the original control arm for reference
I used the Scale tool to compress the width of my original arm
I made three different designs (0.9, 0.95, and 0.98) to test which would fit best
0.9 screwed in to check camber
0.95 screwed in to check camber
0.98 screwed in to check camber
We went with 0.95 because the other two felt too extreme
We checked camber and it was approximately -4 degrees
We attached the wheels
Testing the new arms over a ramp
On our car, we originally tested it using the hole that is closer to the chassis. In order to make the camber more negative through the modification, we designed another hole that is further away from the chassis.
Angel
Change the position of the holes to move the spring
To make the position of the spring more balanced out so that the car can be perfectly adaptive to both bumpy road and high-speed cornering
For the modification of lower control arm, we decided to make the camber of the wheel (how tilt the wheel is) more negative (tilt-in). We used to put both of the spring on the inner circle of the lower control arm. Based on our knowledge, if the spring is closer to the chassis, the wheel can compress the spring more easily, which is more useful when there is a bump and when more grip needed. Meanwhile, moving spring more outward is more suitable for high-speed cornering which we also value according to the track. In order to balance it out, we decided to take a middle position for the spring. I first find the middle point between the distance between the two original holes. Then added a circle sketch with 3mm diameter. Next, I extruded the circle to make a hole.
Modified version of the lower control arm
I mirrored the completed version and made both sides of the lower control arms
Linked the modified design on to the suspension kinematics
Picture of both modified versions added
The camber changed from -1 to -3
Video of testing out the car with modified arms
Testing both modifications together on the official track, pre-race