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Hayabusa-Powered Dax
Rush
Late entering the bike engined fray, DJ Sportscars has come in
with a typically extreme interpretation designed to perfectly demonstrate its
engineering prowess. They don't get much wilder than this!
DJ SPORTSCARS
seems to have been getting an awful lot of publicity recently. But when a
company phones up offering a car with a totally unique front suspension system
that has never been tested before, we're unlikely to pass up the chance. When
they add that it's powered by a turbo charged Suzuki Hayabusa engine pumping
out 350bhp as a conservative (yes, conservative!) estimate, we're already on
our way! DJ certainly knows how to catch our attention. The Harlow based
operation's camber compensation front suspension set-up is something that has
fired our imagination ever since the company displayed a rolling chassis at
last year's Stoneleigh kit car show. Designed by DJ's technical whiz kid, Peter
Walker, this is the first ever system to be produced that has genuinely been
put into production for use on road cars as well as track specials. In brief,
the system is designed to dial out unwanted camber change, which will typically
occur in any normal suspension system when it moves off its at-rest position
into either compression or extension. When viewing a car from either in front
or behind, camber can be seen as the top of the wheel either leaning into the
car (negative camber) or out of the car (positive camber). Zero camber is when
the wheel is bolt upright.
While a small amount of camber can be
beneficial when cornering, a camber which is constantly changing when under
braking, acceleration or cornering because of suspension movement is less
desirable. Why? Because when you tilt a wheel off its upright position you are
putting less rubber in contact with the ground and therefore reducing
grip.
By cunningly linking the front suspension so that the action of
one side of the car causes a reaction on the other side (which in turn causes
both wheels to maintain zero camber change), Peter Walker reckons he has
countered the effects of unwanted camber change without removing the beneficial
effect of castor-generated camber that naturally comes into play as the wheels
turn into a corner.
If the system sounds good, then we'd have to add
that it looks bloody brilliant! Only available on the company's lightweight
round tube chassis, this has to be the most trick looking set-up currently on
the market. Quite frankly, it's a shame to hide it from view, which is why the
two cars we've just tested have the nose cone linked to the bonnet, so that
both are removed as one unit.
To match the front end's zero camber
change characteristics, DJ fits its recently developed De Dion rear suspension
set-up which is currently available on all the Rush variants. Not only does
this make it easier to retain more of the Sierra donor components (and
therefore reduce build costs), but a De Dion arrangement also enforces a zero
camber change set-up to a driven rear suspension system (unlike a conventional
IRS). As such, the new car should have the best of both worlds, with a totally
balanced system front and back.
DJ Sportscars is the first to admit that
the new front system needs careful setting up and, as such, is only offering
the camber compensation system as a rolling chassis option from the factory.
But don't panic, because there's far more to the new bike-engined Dax Rush than
simply the fancy front wishbones and you can still build one around a
lightweight version of the standard chassis.
If DJ has been late getting
on the bike-engine bandwagon it has remained innovative in terms of developing
the installation into its existing chassis. Where virtually every other
manufacturer has stuck with a conventional tunnel-mounted gear lever (except
for the Malone Skunk three-wheeler), Dax has developed a highly individual yet
straightforward column-mounted paddle shift. |
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