Progressive springs

[Will Owen <nashwill@domain.elided>]

Jay Negrin suggested:

"How about a tapers torsion bar, skinnier at one end
than the other. Isn't that one way it's done with coil
springs?"

This works with coils because the skinnier coils
"stack" - that is, each light coil in turn collapses
onto the less light one above it, thus transferring
all the springing effort upwards to the progressively
stiffer coils. This of course does not happen with
torsion bars. As far as I know, the only way to give
progressive springing with a torsion bar setup is by
providing a linkage between the suspension arms and
the bar (as opposed to having one of the arms attached
directly, as in the Milano and GTV) that gives greater
mechanical advantage at the beginning of travel, then
progressively less.

As long as we're citing examples of other cars that
used longitudinal torsion bars up front, let us not
forget the Chrysler cars of the '60s. Those cars were
justly acclaimed for their handling - I remember
particularly the early Valiant and the '62 Plymouth as
being a lot more fun than you'd expect.

Will Owen
Pasadena, CA
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