Mounting Rear Upper Control Arms

[greenjgs]

Hi Guys

As some of you know I am building a race replica, anyway while I was at Muscle Car Masters on the weekend and I had a chat about fitting upper control/radius arms to the rear of my car instead of a Panhard rod. I have seen pics of some cars here with them on. Can someone post pics or give me tips on where to pick up mounting points, clearance issues etc. I have the floor of the donor car here so I can experiment/dummy it up in that before it goes in the racer.

Thanks for any help.

G

[MEANXBCOUPE]

mate,
The raduis rods and panhard do two seperate jobs, so im a little puzzled by you words "instead of".

You can have, while still retaining leaf springs, lower radius rods and upper radius rods. The uppers can be angled towards each other at the leading edge, know as triangulated, these two "rods" locate the diff housing fore and aft in the car, provide squat or anti squat properties in the rear of the car, although it is a fuction of the front suspension geometery as well.
If you choose to triangulate the top arms this will locate the diff housing lateraly, sideways, but is a comprimise due to the top radius rods doing two combined jobs. The lower raduis rods almost purely locate the diff housing, but should always be parralell with the ground when the car is half loaded , at ride height.
A panhard rod or a watts links is a far better way of locating the diff sideways. A panhard rod will, even when set up well, still give some arcing of the diff housing as the suspension travel though is full movement when viewed from behind.
A watts link (as used on Setons new coupe) is effectively a straight movement.
What are you hoping to acheive, a replica or a car that also behaves well on the track?

Hope this helped.
Gary

[greenjgs]

Hi Gary

Thanks for your answers, I understand what the individual items do, however my questions come from a discussion I has at MCM with a suspension expert who suggested the driveability of the car would be better if I used angled upper radius rods and did away with the Panhard. I was originally going to build the rear end with standard track rods and the panhard rod, but use adjustable track rods.

The car is to be an accurate as possible replica of one of Moffat's Hardtops, not a road going paint job replica. I don't intend on racing it, but will do some regularity/heritage hot laps track days etc.

The upside of doing angled track rods is they are hidden and I can leave the Panhard on for the right look.

I'll catch you up for a chat at Echuca

Cheers Graeme

[MEANXBCOUPE]

ok mate, well from what I know Moff's car used a panhard, id go for that.