Drooze here is a little reading for you....
Read and study this:
http://www.racetec.cc/shope/
It is not something you can not do in one visit. There are so many between the lines bits of information that you will find yourself re reading it.
If you have minimal engineering or mechanical skills you should enjoy this site.
From the site:
Bill is a guy that fits the term, been there done that...No re inventing the wheel... Good sound engineering.
(form site):
Bill is a retired automotive engineer. While employed at Chrysler, he was one of the original members of the Ramchargers and was responsible for rear suspension setup of the club's record-holding C/A. He taught at the General Motors Institute and was a faculty advisor for the Institute's motorsports club, the Firebirds.
Bill has lectured in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, physics, classical mechanics, advanced calculus, and differential equations at the college level. Most recently, he taught a graduate level engineering course on vehicle dynamics (using Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, by William and Douglas Milliken, as the text) at the University of Central Florida.
Bill was a guest speaker at the 1998 SAE Motorsports Conference and has personal dragracing experience dating back to the mid '50s.
I hope you enjoy it and it helps your program/learning curve.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------