F1 car bouncing at high speed

Roadblock

I've searched for information on this, but most threads seem to be related to 'fixing' the head movement... which is not my problem.

I suspect what I'm experiencing can be corrected by some garage settings/setup, but I am not sure I understand what's going on, so hopefully someone here can help me understand.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is: Fire up a formula ISI car,use the default setup, do a testing day at the Montreal track, and get up to 190mph (305kph)+ on the long straight and observe that the car seems to get into this oscillating state.. just bouncing. I suspect it's some interaction between the springs, dampers and all of the downforce (maybe the car's bottoming out, but I am personally not seeing sparks out the back). I've had this happen on a couple other tracks, but I still wasn't sure what was going on.

Can anyone explain what's happening, and what the 'correct' approach to fixing it should be (in terms of changing the car's setup)? Thanks!
 
I know this problem in rFactor1. I saw this once in reality (in reduced form), and the reason in that case was much to low rideheight, so where the undertray of the car hit the tarmac hard and bounces off. So please try to increase rideheight, maybe a lot. Or/and try stiffer springs and dampers.
Of course, it's still possible this is a bug.
I never had this problem in rFactor2.
 
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Thanks. I will give that a try and see. I guess the actual ride height is a function of car weight, downforce and spring stiffness... And this is modeled well in the sim.
 
I've heard of this behavior in real cars- it sounds like you are talking about porpoising. It's where the downforce pushes the car suspension down at high speed until the car bottoms out then loses downforce and it raises up again, then it builds up downforce and compresses the springs again all over again.
 
Guy Moulton said:
I've heard of this behavior in real cars- it sounds like you are talking about porpoising. It's where the downforce pushes the car suspension down at high speed until the car bottoms out then loses downforce and it raises up again, then it builds up downforce and compresses the springs again all over again.
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Ah, that makes perfect sense! I didn't make the connection about the car bottoming out ruining the diffuser downforce. Thank you! :)
 
Roadblock said:
Ah, that makes perfect sense! I didn't make the connection about the car bottoming out ruining the diffuser downforce. Thank you! :)
Click to expand...
When the car is on the ground, there's no air underneath it for the diffuser to function. :)
 
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