When I started doing my own research on automotive engineering (majority being on chassis & suspension). I found visual aids extremely helpful in helping me understand different aspects of suspension design, terms like camber, caster, etc. As well as relationships the and effects of different design approaches (ex. Effect of different control arm lengths and angles on camber gain).
One very helpful aid I found was this game. “Besiege”
While there is a campaign, there is also a sandbox where you can utilize the game’s different blocks, joints, and items to create machines.
This game has helped me visualize many aspects of automotive design like the required motion of different joints to make a steering system. And how force can be distributed in different ways to a spring in a suspension system.
While this is a simplistic approach, it has helped me gain a better understanding of automotive systems, design, etc. and how different aspects relate and affect each other and the overall persona of the vehicle.
I’ve made some simple machines, and demonstrations using this game if your interested (Demo's are highly exaggerated):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1259078003
Some GIFS:
Camber Change
Steering Axis Inclination (SAI)
Caster
Anti- Squat/Dive
Bump Steer
More gifs and the actual "downloadable" machines/examples found on the Steam link.
Although restricted by some of the games physics (Can’t lay blocks diagonally w/o mods. Vanilla joints/blocks are huge in general, hard to package everything together, and more…) I feel the game gets the main point across.
If you have the game feel free to check out the files and alter the machines and experiment/ investigate for yourself.
Hopefully it can help you as it has me.
(I’m not advertising the game or anything, just saying that games like this can be used to help educate in this field as well.)
This game has mods that can help model systems more accurately, my machines/ demos don’t have any. I imagine there are mods out there to provide even better examples and demos. So I recommend checking em out if you have the game.