Swing axles again?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Under the subject line "Swing axles again" Michael Smith discusses several
cars of the sixties through eighties, most if not all if them not using swing
axles but some using transverse leaf springs, and ends with a single line
"Alfa did not copy any of these cars as far as I know."

Can't argue with that, since I'm not sure where he's coming from or where he's
going. Perhaps it was just to have nominal Alfa content.

Fusi writes "The development of cars with independent suspensions saw Alfa
Romeo on the front line finding original and effective solutions", writing
about the 8C 1935 which made its debut in the Italian GP at Monza in September
1935, with swing axle IRS and a transverse leaf spring, along with an IFS
using Porsche trailing arm geometry and coil springs.

The year previously the Italian GP at Monza was won by a Mercedes W25, with
swing axle IRS and two short transverse quarter-elliptic leaf springs, and IFS
using double wishbones and coil springs. Second place was taken by a Type A
Auto Union with swing axle IRS and a transverse leaf spring, along with an IFS
using Porsche trailing arm geometry and torsion bars. I'm not sure where Alfa
placed among the also-rans

Fusi points out that the Alfa design was laid down in 1934, but Pomeroy says
that design work on the Mercedes and Auto Union began in 1932.

Benz (before Benz and Daimler merged) had a rear-engined GP car with swing
axle IRS and two splayed quarter-elliptic leaf springs, which is usually
considered the antecedent of the Auto Union. Among road cars Austro-Daimler
(where Porsche was the chief engineer) and Tatra, along with lesser
eastern-Europe makes, had backbone frames, swing axles and transverse leaf
springs in various mixes on some, not all features on all versions, as early
as 1923. The only Italian car I know of with a backbone frame, swing axles and
transverse leaf spring (and air-cooled rear engine, too) from that era was the
San Giusto, manufactured in small numbers in Trieste 1924-1926.

Perhaps the point, if there is one, is that issues of originality and copying
are not nearly as important as effective execution.

Re the 'jacking' and 'tuck-under' disadvantages of swing axles, I suspect that
the W25 Mercedes probably had very limited wheel travel, with its
fourteen-inch quarter ecliptics, which may have reduced any disadvantages of
swing axles associated with softly-sprung road cars.

John H.
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