Are laterally damped front bumpers useful on 3-lane tracks?
I often see many Jump Open-class Mini 4WD builds online using front bumpers with lateral damping systems, such as O-rings or spring sliders.
I understand why these can be useful on digital turns, where the car receives a strong side impact. But are they actually useful on a standard 3-lane track?
If so, in which situations do they provide a real advantage?
The reason I’m asking is that most Open-class Mini 4WD builds I see online seem to use some kind of laterally damped front bumper. However, digital turns do not seem to be very common outside of Japan, and when they are used, they are usually found on 5-lane tracks rather than standard 3-lane layouts.
So I’m wondering: are O-ring or spring-slider front bumpers genuinely useful for 3-lane racing, or are they mostly built for digital turns and specific Japanese-style layouts?
I’d like to understand whether this setup has benefits on normal 3-lane tracks, such as improving stability, reducing bounce after wall contact, helping with lane changes, or absorbing impacts from technical sections.