Has any one ever heard or seen a drop straight style axle, Think f100, that was supported by the coil springs that are longer but in the stock spring wells in the frame, as well as the shocks, with a pan hard bar and radius rods to hold it in place???
Sounds like a twin I beam Ford pickup from the late 60s or 70s? Or possibly a show car from the sixties like one of Roth's? In any case, the setup you describe will work great if it is set up correctly.
I seem to recall an old g***er from the early 60's that had a similar setup, all chromed. I think that it was a Model A or B Victoria. If memory serves me right (and sometimes it refuses to due to that whole no shirt, no shoes thing), Hot Rod had a picture of it in a spread on g***er suspensions several years ago.
My friend who saw it said it was a one piece f100 style axle not a twin I beam like I was thinking, the car was raised, he knows cars so I dont doubt him, said it looked realy trick it was a 40's chevy, custom, he said it looked like a stock set up except for the axle and radius rods, I am interested in doing it to my ride to be different, if it can be stable enought been working it out on paper, found nothing on the web, I will look into back magazine issues on line
Both Roth and Barris used front suspensions with coils and solid axles on their cars; look at the 'Outlaw', 'Mysterion', and the 'Ala Cart' (although this one used air bags rather than coils). The bad thing about coils is they don't generally give as much roll resistance as parallel leafs do, so sway bays were usually used.
Early broncos are set up like that if you are looking for reference. Getting everything to be stable will be a chore.
Easiest setup is with a 4 link. Ford uses a suspension link that is made from sheet metal and is like a modern radius rod, which also works but a 4 link is easier to set up and as has been mentioned a sway bar apart from the panhard bar is a really good idea.
I can think of many reasons why almost noone ever did this, but Im sure you will have plenty of other responses covering that from the armchair engineers. Only image I could find.
It has a leaf spring to p*** NHRA rules on OEM suspension for Gas cl***. the coil overs then become replacement shocks. The coil sprung front end actually is very viable and in later years has become very popular with the off road crowd. The idea is that it rides better then leaf springs so. They are normally set up like a truck arm suspension though.
Contrarian voice here...while I agree that front coils & cups were used occasionally (esp on 'show rods' which saw little in the way of actual road time), they were far from typical. Because of that, I would argue that they really aren't 'traditional' in the strictest sense of the word (although I freely admit that I tend to view "traditional" in the same way a Protestant approaches the Symbolum Apostoli***; whereas 'catholic' means universal or broadly accepted, 'traditional' too implies a certain adherence to a norm), but I digress...
This is my outlaw clone, It uses coil springs from a 54 chevy and has 4 bars and a panhard bar. the road agent I restored in the 90's. If you look close you will notice the coils can't possibly work the way they are set up. there is actually a single vw torsion bar on the front of it. And yes I did drive it several times and it drove beautifully except for the fact that it was really HOT inside
I think Roth put the upside down coils on Road Agent just to see folk scratching their heads trying to figure it out!
Straight axle with Corvair springs. My first roadster. It was built by the 10-month series Car Craft Magazine featured circa 1967-68. One of the best series of build articles ever. It drove like a Cadillac, but above 125-130 it wanted to take off, topping out the springs. So I built a real race car to replace it. The car is still on the street 40+ years later.
The Jalopy Journal
