Re: swing axles, etc.

["Jim Steck" <4sfed@xxxxxxxxx>]

I can't believe this urban legend continues!  Nader and his team of
lawyers was unable to demonstrate to the courts the supposed
tendency for the Corvair to roll over.  All but one of the comparison
vehicles, including VW, Renault, Valiant, others, did roll over.  The case
involved an overloaded swing axle Corvair, with furniture tied to the
roof, that rolled down the side of a mountain.  The roll-over could
not be repeated on flat pavement.

FWIW, the fiberglass spring in the Corvette adds no roll stiffness.
Each end acts as an independent cantilever spring.  On the other
hand, the '64 Corvair had a transverse leaf spring in addition to
very soft coil springs.  This spring pivoted in the middle and provided
vertical stiffness, but no roll stiffness . . . reducing the rear roll
stiffness of the swing axle Corvair and eliminating the oversteer.

>From '65 on, the rear suspension was a copy of the Corvette IRS
with coil springs instead of the transverse leaf.

Jim Steck


> ---------------------- snip -----------------------
> It is somewhat ironic
> that the superior power of the Corvair was what got ordinary folks into
> trouble.

> Finally, another interesting characteristic of the transverse leaf spring
> is built in anti roll stiffness. The Corvette used a single leaf
transverse
> spring in their irs, and I even think it was fiberglass. The Corvette, of
> course, has essentially the same rear suspension as Jaguars of the same
> era, except for the leaf instead of coilovers.


--------------------------------
[This E-mail scanned for viruses]
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided