Four Link question

[Tom Goldman]

Originally Posted by mginnett

Setting up bracket car with four link, wishbone, anti roll bar, double adjustable coil-over rear suspension; I have seen where some folks have ditched the wishbone and tied the two lower four link bars together by welding in lateral supports and an X brace. Looking for comments.

What you're describing is called a swing arm type suspension. ......this works well for hi HP door cars and dragsters. ..it really limits the amount of lateral rotation at the lower bars. It can hurt the performance of a car without enough horsepower.........I've completely discarded the use of wishbones on the bracket and Super class cars I build and just use a conventional diagonal bar with 3/4 x5/8 heims and an anti roll bar.
...Tom

[mginnett]

Originally Posted by Tom Goldman

What you're describing is called a swing arm type suspension. ......this works well for hi HP door cars and dragsters. ..it really limits the amount of lateral rotation at the lower bars. It can hurt the performance of a car without enough horsepower.........I've completely discarded the use of wishbones on the bracket and Super class cars I build and just use a conventional diagonal bar with 3/4 x5/8 heims and an anti roll bar.
...Tom

What kind of problems were you experiencing with wishbones? What kind of horsepower would be required to make a swing arm effective? This project looks to be headed towards about 800 HP low 9 / high 8 second ride. From the nature of your comments it sounds like I would be best off with a diagonal link. Thank you for taking time to comment.

Michael Ginnett
IHRA 566
Anchorage, Alaska

[Tom Goldman]

Maintainance and wear are the main problems with a wishbone. ......They are great on cars that park on asphalt and recieve regular maintance. . But since we as Sportsman racers,usually pit in the dirt or stones and often the cars only leave the trailer at the track,the wishbone setups experiance more wear . .......As far as the swing arm,I feel they are more in line for 1000hp and up cars,but there are many cars out there with lower hp using them. ...............Alston makes an interesting x bar locator that is not ridgedly mounted to the lower bars. ..............Tom