Swing axles (tangent to the 911/GTV 6 thread)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Catching up on past threads - noted Davide Frada (who has a De Dion rear end
on his 1971 Rover, and swing axles on his 1971 Mercedes, and a live axle on
his 1971 Alfa - good taste in years, Davide) quoting Mike Nakamura writing "I
can remember reading criticism of swing axles on other makes, however they
seem to serve their purpose and sometimes beat ALFA's on the race track.  Some
swing axles were executed better than others, same goes for live rear axles."

 I'm not sure I followed either set of points in the context of the broader
thread, but it seems appropriate enough to mention that after the swing-axle
and, later,  De Dion equipped German GP cars (albeit with other advantages,
like money and displacement) started usually whomping the Alfa tipo B in the
early thirties, Alfa used swing axles exclusively for road cars from the 1935
6C 2300 B through the last 6C 2500 in 1952, (when they switched to a live axle
for the 1900) and in track cars from the Bimotore and the tipo C in 1935
through the 158 until 1951 when, as the 159, it was converted to a De Dion.
The team won back-to-back World Championships with the car as a swing-axle 158
in 1950 and as a De Dion-equipped 159 in 1951. The subsequent 6C 3000 CM,
Sportiva, and the 160 GP project were all De Dion cars. With the TZ Alfa went
to full wishbone independents in 1963, although it didn't do badly with the
solid axle GTA a few years later. They never tried the swing axle again.

 Not trying to prove any big point, but Alfa had been there, done that, and
had often done pretty well with a variety of fairly well understood and
relatively conservative options, carefully executed, in the suspension
departments.

 John H.

Raleigh, N.C.

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