Understanding Banking
- jayddg75
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 23
It makes sense to write an article doing a deep dive on how banking affects your car. In essence, banking redirects the lateral force of your car taking a turn towards the ground, like gravity on a car sitting on flat ground. It really just adds to the effective weight of your car and reduces lateral load transfer. The lateral force that is now directed towards the ground will be distributed to the corners based on where your center of gravity sits.
You will still have the same amount of lateral force, regardless of banking, on a turn. You are just taking some of that force and putting it someplace else.
Turning Without Banking
Let's look at a turn on a flat road. Normal force, gravity in this case, is pulling your car to the ground. As you turn, the lateral acceleration of the mass of the car pushes it outward from the turn; this is the centrifugal force. What keeps your car on the road is the lateral force generated by the tires, this is the centripetal force.
Turning With Banking
When you add banking to a turn, you are essentially putting the road in the way of the centrifugal force generated. This acts like gravity on a flat road and adds to the normal force pulling your car to the ground; the lateral force now pushes your car to the ground as well. This, in essence, increases how much your car effectively weighs. Since this is loading the tires more, you are also increasing grip. The redirected lateral force acts through the CG and the new total effective weight of your car will get distributed as your CG sits; typically 60% left and 40% right.
This reduces lateral load transfer!
Using the QM Setup Tool
If you want to see what happens when you change banking, just go into the Roll Analysis and adjust for increased or decreased banking. You will see how it effects your numbers and you can then adjust your springs, ride heights, etc. to make sure you keep the same handling as before!
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