...I love a good tech thread. But I am still in favor of real world testing. What one driver is uncomfortable with, the next driver may not mind. Some people prefer the cons on paper, due to the benefit of the pros. Vice Versus.
And that is why we test-test-test. Some of the subjects of discussion in this thread can make 0.01% improvement in lap times and are only useful after the rest of the car has been modified to suit - and that usually includes spherical bearings and metal bushings.
For most drivers, getting the right wheel and tire, spring rate, and gross suspension adjustments is hard enough. Going beyond those items before you have them nailed down is a waste of time. If you haven't tested multiple spring rates and alignments, there's hardly a need to go further. The exception (there's always an exception, nothing is absolute) is if you are designing a car from scratch. And I've even seen a huge number of builders get lost in the minutiae before fixing horrible issues with major components in the Lotus-7 groups.
And that testing? It's not that hard. We researched, bought and configured some simple but robust and accurate timing gear that is now almost obsolete because of onboard GPS lap timing. We rent an autocross site or track, usually on a weekday to get a cheaper rate. We take the parts to be tested and the tools to remove/install/adjust them. And last we use both simple data acquisition (cameras, timers) and complex (OBDII recorders, accelerometers, and specialized sensors) to record the event so it can be evaluated back at the shop. The cost of data acquisition is coming down every year and some versions are as simple as an iPhone app.
This last year has seen us testing a number of cars, but the standouts are the red Mustang GT verifying our setup with the E-Street Prepared rear spoiler before the Solo Nationals...
...the half-finished Brianne Corn Pikes Peak Subaru STi that came in for a last minute makeover before the event...
...and although Terry will deny it's a Vorshlag car, the V6 Firebird Chump Car that underwent proof-of-concept testing to decide whether it even has the potential to be raced.
We test suspension movement and speed and before we spun off AST-USA as a seperate company, we tested dampers.
But before whole-car testing, we start by finding out what we are really working with. We measure the parts we'll be working with. We're famous (imfamous?) for pictures of parts on scales, but we fit dozens of wheels to cars and we also rate springs.
And after all of that, we publish as much of the info as we can so our community, not just our customers, can benefit from it.
Along those lines, we've been collecting a LOT of S197 OEM and aftermarket spring data and I expect Terry to put it all together in a coherent post and put it on S197forum.com
