Stu wrote: ↑01 Mar 2022, 20:44
AR3-GP wrote: ↑01 Mar 2022, 20:32
It's possible that this arm is acting like a leaf spring. If they can make the arm have multiple functions with a similar mass, it's an efficient way to spend "mass" on the car. The belleville stack and the pullrod (if that is what they are still using) can be lighter and smaller.
Someone has previously mentioned that they may be housing the wheel tethers within it (personally I would put that within the lower wishbone), but a leaf spring is not such a daft idea. If ‘fixed’ at the edge of the chassis it could save weight as it would have the potential to operate in both pitch and roll fairly effectively. We may never see what they are actually doing as the remainder of their suspension system is hidden within the chassis itself.
A pass through for the wheel tether doesn't make sense because you can't fix the wheel tether for the left side upright, to the right-side upright (Which is what a pass-through would imply). According to Article 14.4.1. Each tether must be independently fixed to the survival cell which means there is no reason to do a pass through of wheel tethers from one side to the other.
14.4.1 Wheel Tethers
Each wheel must be fitted with three tethers, each with a cross sectional area greater than
110mm² and each of which comply with FIA standard 8864-2013 and each of which has a
minimum energy absorption of 7kJ. No suspension member may contain more than two
tethers.
Each tether must have its own separate attachments at both ends, which:
a. Are able to withstand a tensile force of 70kN in any direction within a cone of 45°
(included angle) measured from the load line of the relevant suspension member.
b. Are able to accommodate tether end fittings with a minimum inside diameter of
15mm.
c. Do not share a common fastener and are designed such that the failure of one
attachment point will not lead to the direct failure of an adjacent attachment point.
I've wondered if this single control arm is supported by bushings and actually "floating" inside the chassis. If you didn't know they were using it as a control arm, you'd also think it was just a roll bar. My own vehicle has a very similar looking cross member which is single piece, mounted to chassis with rubber bushing, and mounted to each upright. It's the anti-roll bar
. But I don't know why you would want to couple the roll stiffness tuning to a cumbersome component like a control arm. It's much easier to tune roll stiffness from the adjustment mechanism on the rocker assembly inside the chassis.
A lion must kill its prey.