when was the first 4 bar front end used ? what period 50"s 60's 70"s. any help. Might start a project with a spare frame and some parts lying around.
Ive seen pictures of drag strip cars 4 bar front ends back from the 60's so they are at least that old. Im most likely going to go that route for my roadster project, gotta try to find a set of batwings for cheaper though, $100 just seems wrong.
I always thought it was a Pete & Jakes invention. I guess I won't look down on four bars as non-traditional anymore.
There are many early four bars, probably coming from the sprint car world. Certainly on rods by fifties, probably sooner...all used tie rod ends or heims. PJ based theirs on Ford anti-sway panhard parts with rubber bushings.
Miller used a "4-bar" quarter elliptic spring on the front drives around 1925. Kurtis roadsters used a 4-bar in the early 50's
Circle track world was almost certainly the source...they could not run wishbones on low cars, and did not want binding in front end.
I had seen several cars from the 50's and early 60's with 4 bar fronts and decided to with that for the '31 I'm building. Figured I might take a beating for it, but I like the looks and stability.
I was wondering that myself. I just noticed "Brutus", 65 Pontiac. 4 bar. Plus Doug Thorleys car, "Chevy too much", had one with real long bars like an altered.
I actually have an old original Pete and Jakes Parallel 4 bar on the front end of my car in my avatar i bought the 31 model a frame and the original p&j 4 bar and super bell tube axle from an old hotrod friend of the family it has been in storage for years. Story he told me was it was on the front end of an old 32 high boy built in the late 50's from this area and had an old set of coil overs on it and the guy pulled it off to go with a Mustang 2 setup when the street rod craze hit so he bough it from him and it set in his storage shed for years after that till i came around askin bout it,and ended up buying it.Got rid of the coilovers and put a spring behind setup on it. Edit- The 4 bar bushings even still say Pete and Jakes on them.
About a third of the late 40's early 50's sprint cars and midgets in the Justice Bros Museum have four bars, but no rubber/pink urethane bushings. The bars on Norm's car aren't parallel. They are closer at the frame end. May be because since they are closer at the frame than at the axle, they are "aimed" at some point that they allow the axle to rotatearound, much like a single ball stock wishbone.
I know you meant that tongue in cheek! The first I saw was in '50s, dirt track midgets & sprints. but that was just because I was a kid then. Must have been earlier than that.
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