1964 mercedes 220b track day suspension design

[rwd4evr]

I'm building A '64 mercedes 220b Fintail track day, autocross, and any other motorsport I can sign up for. The car is 2900 pounds stock. Im installing an all aluminium DOHC 5.0 (303.5 cu/in) mercedes engine that is at least 100-150 lbs lighter than the stock iron I-6. The front suspension has pretty good geometry from what i can tell but will need some tweaking to get the anti dive and roll centers right(and adjustable). Its short and long arm design, Approximately 17" lowers and 10.5" uppers. The control arms bolt to the subframe on cross shafts which are parallel to the centerline of the car as far as i can tell. I haven't leveled and plotted the centerlines yet but i should be able to shim the lowers for anti dive. One issue is it has king pin knuckles, ive read that they dont handle brake torque as well as ball joints but i don't know. I'm thinking that i will change the spindles to the next gen mercedes bits which have bolt on steering arms, with custom control arms and shorter steering arms to suit the rack and pinion ill be swapping to. the rear is a low pivot swing axle. it has level lower control arms(18 inch center to center i believe) parallel to the cars centerline with spring perches just forward of the axle mount on the arm. My plan is to use the stock control arms and fabricate a watts link and either a torque arm or third link setup with a ford 8.8 axle. the one issue i'm concerned about is that the forward mount is a vertical bolt going up into the floor with rubber bushings. I figure i can switch to a spherical bearing for that though. So what im trying to gather is opinions and experience on the three link vs torque arm for adjustability and stability in different types of turns, like long fast sweepers or tight autocross type course. Also what software people have had success with in the real world after designing their own setups. This is a budget build, i sell mercedes parts as a side business so most of the parts i will use come from newer and massive mercedes sedans. The engine and 13" four piston front brakes come from a 92 500sel. The rears are slightly smaller but i may just stick with the mustang brakes that come with the 8.8, since it has c-clip axles and the mercedes has non floating two piston calipers which can cause issues with kicking the pistons back into the calipers with the movement allowed by c clips.

[rwd4evr]

just a few more specs incase anyone is interested.
front track; 58.34"
rear track: 58.46"
wheelbase: 108.26"
curb weight: 2910#
a couple front subframe pics out of the car. its a rear steer setup. the piece on top of the spring pocket is the upper sub to body mount. the piece curving downward to the front is the forward/lower sub mount. it has sort of a half leaf spring with a rubber bushing on the sub side and bolts directly to the body at a slight upward angle with the sway bar mount sandwiching it. This should allow me to heim joint it and pull the lower portion of the sub forward for caster and/or anti dive adjustment.
140050
140048140049
you can kinda see the lower "leaf" in the bottom of the last pic. that car is right hand drive so your looking at it from the standing in front of the car. The way its all set up i think i can get all the adjustment i need from it with some creativity. The control arm bushings are brass i'm pretty sure and last a long time if greased regularly. These cars were WAY ahead of their time in '59 when they came out. The high end 280 and 300 sel had full air suspension and were sold until 1973 with basically the same suspension including the 280sel 6.3.

[Protour_Pinto]

Are you going to stick with the stock setup or are you considering a modern option like a crown vic subframe?

[rwd4evr]

I want to stick with the stock subframe. crown vic is way too wide. i'm trying to keep it as much mercedes as possible. I'm no purist by any means but i like to flip the purists off with a car like this. amg would have done it with available mercedes parts, before mercedes bought them and watered it down to just a model of their car. The trans and rear are the only things i cant really source from mercedes. ive considered a later model mercedes rear subframe swap but they use abs for limited slip and aftermarket lsd are crazy expensive. The explorer 8.8 are dirt cheap and will take whatever you throw at them until the carrier goes boom. At that power level i'll need a detroit locker anyway. The fd rx-7 front axle is the right width but only the lower arms are part of the subframe, so that would be a nightmare. I think the stock front sub will be up to the task, just may have to lose the kingpin spindles. If i can ream the mercedes spindles for gm ball joints i can use howe racing ball joints that are available in different lengths in 1/16 increments(i believe) i can dial the camber curve and roll center.

I've been reading a lot of the ron sutton stickys and now i'm not sure about the watts link unless its fully movable, not just in half inch increments or whatever it happens to be. Griggs racing and cortex racing have nice bolt on 8.8 watts setups but they are expensive and only adjustable by changing holes in the rear cover or the plate that bolts on to it with griggs. if i can make a setup like the griggs piece with full sliding adjustability it would be ideal. I'm pretty sold on the three link, if it intrudes on the back seat i'm not too worried about it. When i get over 500hp and want to drag it maybe i can add a torque arm mount and pull the third link.

So i still need to know a good program for plotting it all out. any suggestions?

[Autobahn-Outlaw]

Hi,
do you have any updates ?
Very interesting, how do you want to mount the 8.8 rearaxle?

Greetings from Germany

[rwd4evr]

Hi,
do you have any updates ?
Very interesting, how do you want to mount the 8.8 rearaxle?

Greetings from Germany

The stock mercedes rear lower control arms are already set up very well to attach to the live axle. I will be using a watts link and either a third upper link or a lower torque arm system. I havent been messing with this one too much lately, ive been building a 450SLC drift car. Its basically a german muscle car(well not enough muscle yet), v8 4 speed manual. its a ball to drive. Check it out on my you tube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWCcz0z6-0

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTTzrnX2bx6LXtPuG8YEFSA?view_as=subscriber