Fatman Fabrication Wonderbar Rear Suspension

[2gofaster]

I've yet to see something from Fatman that didn't need modifications to work correctly, IMO. Their strut setup for the classic mustang is a perfect example. The amount of time modifying it was more than it would have taken to build it from scratch.

[blakes72x]

wow talk about back from the dead

[Tom Welch]

Seems to me that a lot of time is spent figuring out how to not use leaf springs. What is so bad/inferior about a multi leaf rear spring with the second leaf half wrapping the front spring eye and a watts link? This setup is simple to install, it works. I don't have data for comparison but why do so many re-invent the rear suspension of cars with rear leaf springs?

[mikedc]

IMHO leaf spring rears are decent for doing almost everything but they aren't the best setup for anything. Most guys souping-up cars are trying to build their ride to be more specialized for some specific type of driving.

[Norm Peterson]

I imagine that somebody who's really sharp and fully understands leaf springs could do a really good job with them. The problem is that you're faced with somewhat contradictory requirements that you're trying to resolve in just the same two suspension components that also provide both ride and roll stiffness.

It's generally easier (for most of us anyways) to be able to split the rear axle control duties up a bit more so that whatever you change to improve one thing doesn't affect all the other things that you improved during previous design steps nearly as much.

Most of the devices that improve leaf spring behavior (acceleration grip and hop elimination in particular) end up solving that problem at the expense of good drivability during hard driving such as you'd experience at an autocross or out on the big track or they introduce some sort of nonlinear behavior as they switch between one contact state and another.


Edit - that the Fatman link is 404-dead probably suggests something . . .


Norm