I'm reading Al Drake's "Flatout" book for the first time .It's all about So.Cal street and dry lakes racing from 1930 to 1950 with lots of great old pictures. My question is : Why did a lot of the first modifieds (1923 - 1939 ) run parallel leaf front springs,like from a Chevy or Dodge on the Model T and Model A frames instead of the stock set ups? I know some had modified frames but even the Ford frames had them. Was it for more stability at speed? I'm curious because ,obviously that trend stopped after WWII when all of the Fords I see in pictures used the stock Ford type spring and wishbones.
Before WW 2 a lot of dirt track race cars were three springers. Parallel leafs in the front and Model A in the back. I would guess that just transferred to the Lakes. Just a guess.
We run the conventional cross spring in the front on our car. With no stibility problems. If I had to guess it had to do with shocks that wern't very good at that time. Other than that I really don't know.--TV
My grandfather was a Model T guru (strictly stock), and I have owned some bone stock T's as well. The transverse mount leaf springs, when mounted front and back, made for some serious body roll, side to side. It's really pretty amazing if you have ever witnessed just how much movement there is. I am betting they swapped to the parrallel leaf spring set-up up front for stability reasons.
I believe it may have had something to do with swapping the frame to use a Chevy or es*** type frame,... in order to get the step over the rear axle, inturn lowering the car... The easiest solution was to just use the stock front suspension... Then in the rear swapping to a Ford rear axle to allow the use of the Ford running gear...likely bolting in the Ford rear crossmember. As "designs" says.. alot of the dirt track cars ran this set-up and there were a lot of books available on how to build a dirt track car this way... Hot Rodding is based a lot on using racing parts for the street so following this order makes sense? This is all speculation though, not from the mouth of anyone who was actually there.... Zach
It may have been that the Chevrolet and Es*** frames were a bit stouter than the Ford frames of the period too. My dad told stories of his buddy building an underslung with a Es*** frame. Probably because it was what was available cheap or free though.
Thanks. That all makes sense. Ed Iskanderian used an Es*** frame and he was there early,so that's got to be the reason.Better stability.
The Jalopy Journal
