I have been talking to Mick Broom, Chief Development Engineer at Hesketh Motorcycles, who I know through flying. We have mutual friends and his son David was my ex-girlfriend's flying instructor and is one-time World Champion microlighter.
Anyway, Mick has been designing and building motorcycles (including three wheelers and sidecars) since 1979, so there can be almost nothing he doesn't know about things like camber, caster, Ackerman, trail and suspension systems, and he has given me some pointers.
One thing he does recommend is making my trail adjustable so that I can find the optimum distance between my axle and the centre of turn, which trails behind the axle (at the centre of the rising block). He also suggests I build the car and suspend it with aircraft spec bungees first. Then he has advised me on how to weigh the car's axle loads for working out springing, and that each spring should be 2/3 unloaded when stationary.
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