Abstract
It is difficult for most of passenger cars to attach various types of suspensions. The modular experimental vehicle, which is designed to exchange suspension systems, has been developed to evaluate the effect of design changes of a suspension upon ride and handling characteristics of a vehicle. In order to enable the assemblage between modules, the experimental vehicle design is based on a space frame construction through finite element analysis. Moreover, module frames and brackets are designed using three-dimensional solid modeler to check the interference between each part of a vehicle. Steady-state and transient road tests were performed. Multibody dynamic model and simplified linear vehicle model are made to compare with the tests. The results of simulations and tests show the performance and validity of this experimental vehicle.