Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (William F. Milliken)

I used Milliken in conjunction with Gillespie, Bosch, and factory setup data along with photos of the stock vehicle at the track to analyze and setup my 944 Turbo for serious track work. Tuning your suspension isn't just about tossing on the heaviest springs, thickest anti roll bars, and hardest dampers you can buy -- just look at the rice burners driving down the street that generate enormous pitch oscillations every time they hit an expansion bump and you'll see what I mean. The problem: you could see in photos (and from tire wear) that my car's outside front wheel was developing positive camber, and the outside rear wheel was developing severe negative camber in turns. The inside wheels both had negative camber. The photo also showed that my car had a roll sensitivity of 3.7 degrees per g. At the same time, the handling of the '86 944 Turbo was very neutral (also confirmed by what the motoring press wrote, especially when comparing the '86 to the '88 and the 968 CS). The objec... Read more

It has a great title and hardcover, but this is hardly an engineering book on vehicle dynamics. Maybe it classifies as a good reading book with interesting stories and some basic explanations, but not what you expect from serious mechanical and aerodynamic engineering (I'm sorry, but having basic equations doesn't make it an engineering book!). It might be a good fit for the technical race-car enthusiast. This is dissapointing, perhaps they should let you have a peek inside the book to help you decide whether you want to buy it or not.

A no nonsense mathematical approach to vehicle dynamics. Standard issue auto geek must read material. Power level yourself by equipping this book and behold the awesomeness of over 9000. A bonus side effect to ward off unwanted female attention, but to be honest, this book is better than sex! I find myself referencing it very often for little things here and there, and everytime I ended up spending hours rereading some of the chapters again. The best $100 I ever spent!

Absolutely outstanding and well structured. Gives a proper understanding of the fundamental theories and equation formulations, which are the building blocks for any concept to start with. Highly recommendable!

Good luck finding this much information about vehicle dynamics in any other book, that is as well put together and easy to comprehend as this one. Well suited to those with engineering/math/science related backgrounds but not all of the information is beyond grasp of most people.