Vintage race car leaf spring setup

[randomthoughtguy]

Hi everyone

I'm looking to build a vintage monoposto style race car and would like leaf suspension at all corner just to fit the vintage vibe of it.

For the rear axle to potentially avoid using a shock absorber could one mount two quarter elliptical leaf spring packs above and below the axle but with opposing flex as in the attached?

In my (probably delusional) mind, this would stop the need for shocks as upward axle travel would be counteracted by the opposing leaf spring.



Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[GregLocock]

No. Even if I could understand that drawing, it would probably behave more like a jounce bumper than a shock absorber. For a vintage car you probably need a friction style shock absorber. You may get away with the internal friction between the leaves of the leaf spring. You might prefer the look of a lever arm shock as used in the MGB, which have been around for 90 years.



Cheers

Greg Locock


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[NormPeterson]

If each of those springs is pivoted at brackets welded to the axle, you'd be approximating a parallel 4-link suspension that might not need an additional link for lateral location. I suspect that would mean a smaller amount of axle roll steer than with a single quarter-elliptic clamped at the axle and less 'twitchy' behavior than, say, an early Austin-Healey Sprite with a single quarter-elliptic per side. You'd probably want to orient both of them as shown for the bottom pack, as increasing the load on that pack is trying to unload its fractional leaves. Perhaps make the top spring a single leaf - or even pivot it at both ends - because it really doesn't have to carry any weight and only has to sort of look like it might.

Relying on inter-leaf friction alone for damping would probably result in a harsh, jiggly ride and poor control over tire loading. I'm sure there's films of Henry Ford's earlier efforts that can demonstrate this.


Norm