[gt alex]

I was just remembering a magazine article about a early V8 Kadett drag car that was very fast on the 1/4 mile.
It had (if memory serves) a ford 9" rear. But the clever bit was the use of some F truck leaf springs with the rear of the leafs cut off, diff mounted in a conventional manner, and the front eyes (apparently the correct width) mounted as pivots where the radius arm use to mount. it used coil springs in the standard position pushing down on plates mounted on the leaf springs. And still used a panard rod and shocks.
So effectively ladder bars made from 1/2 leaf springs allowing a normal diff to be used except unlike ladder bars a bit of real suspension movement.

Anyone else seen this ? and do you think it could be made to handle ?

 

[RallyBob]

I was just remembering a magazine article about a early V8 Kadett drag car that was very fast on the 1/4 mile.
It had (if memory serves) a ford 9" rear. But the clever bit was the use of some F truck leaf springs with the rear of the leafs cut off, diff mounted in a conventional manner, and the front eyes (apparently the correct width) mounted as pivots where the radius arm use to mount. it used coil springs in the standard position pushing down on plates mounted on the leaf springs. And still used a panard rod and shocks.
So effectively ladder bars made from 1/2 leaf springs allowing a normal diff to be used except unlike ladder bars a bit of real suspension movement.

Anyone else seen this ? and do you think it could be made to handle ?

Fine for a straight line, but it will not ride or handle particularly well. Any articulation in the rear axle will be via the deflection of the forward leaf spring bushings and the twisting of the leaf springs themselves.

 

[gt alex]

Fine for a straight line, but it will not ride or handle particularly well. Any articulation in the rear axle will be via the deflection of the forward leaf spring bushings and the twisting of the leaf springs themselves.

Nicely worded, dead on. Do you remember the car? I think it may not be all that bad, I'm more surprised it worked so well with big power.

 

[SpringGT]

I was just remembering a magazine article about a early V8 Kadett drag car that was very fast on the 1/4 mile.
It had (if memory serves) a ford 9" rear. But the clever bit was the use of some F truck leaf springs with the rear of the leafs cut off, diff mounted in a conventional manner, and the front eyes (apparently the correct width) mounted as pivots where the radius arm use to mount. it used coil springs in the standard position pushing down on plates mounted on the leaf springs. And still used a panard rod and shocks.
So effectively ladder bars made from 1/2 leaf springs allowing a normal diff to be used except unlike ladder bars a bit of real suspension movement.

Anyone else seen this ? and do you think it could be made to handle ?

They are called quarter-elliptical spring suspensions and there is a lot of information about them in the literature online.
They are simple and crude and seem to be favored by drag racers who don't have to turn many corners and off-roaders who like them for the extreme suspension travel the you can get with them.
dual-quarter-elliptics-worked-at-indy-will-they-work-on-san-fernando-boulevard

 

[gt alex]

They are called quarter-elliptical spring suspensions and there is a lot of information about them in the literature online.
They are simple and crude and seem to be favored by drag racers who don't have to turn many corners and off-roaders who like them for the extreme suspension travel the you can get with them.
dual-quarter-elliptics-worked-at-indy-will-they-work-on-san-fernando-boulevard

No quarter elliptical have the chassis end mounted solid and the leafs are the springs on this car the leaf springs mounted to the diff solid and the chassis end pivots and requires additional springs to support the car.
But I had a early sprite that had a quarter elliptical rear and it handled well once the I added a pannard rod which I stole from a honda s800 wreck

 

[heliman]

By far the easiest and simplest way to eliminate the torque tube rear end is to go with a torque arm. It's easily adaptable to about any rear end and cars like the gen 3 camaro's have that setup from the factory which makes it super easy.