Watts Link suspension idears

[mick taylor]

I am wondering about the watts link setup on the rear of the falcons, now I think that they were from XE to ED.

Now Dick Johnson did a mod on this setup, because as I understand that he did not like the way it handled driven hard like.
So what's going on ?
I remember seeing the XE Falcons lose it coming through fast corners back in the day and people complaining that she just came out on them, now the roads were not smooth and you had to get 2 wheels off in the dirt if another car came the other way was the norm.

So does anyone have a handle on this as to why, or did the XF or EA change in anyway.

People put hard bushes in them, maybe doing a disservice as what it comes across to me is that's such is better with soft bushes.

It looks to me that Dick was trying to lessen a influence in some way as to such upsetting the apple cart.

I believe dicky boy had a good reason to set it up the way that he did.

And if we all know the facts someone may do the tweak and have a lot safer car. especially with the power that some people have nowadays it would pay too look into such.

[cs123]

No idea on what Dick did but I'd guess it was altering the height of the bell crank to change the roll centre.

[XC_Lizzard]

One of the changes from EF to EL was to lower the pivot point for the watts link 20mm.
I think this was intended to reduce bump oversteer.

[XR Martin]

One idea was to not have the pivot on the diff hat, and to have it on the body of the car instead.

[XRtowcar]

Had an XE Spack sedan that I did driver training at Sandown years ago.
Car handled well at speed especially across the top of the back straight.
Got a nice four wheel drift going.
Was worst on turn in and had no front end grip.
Would scrub like mad.

[chris.e]

I do remember reading somewhere but i cannot recall where, Dick found that the roadcar'"s geometry did not work as a racecar as it would bind. His solution was to fit the softest rubber bushes in the standard locations, then fit some proper 4 link arms with the correct geometry that "shadowed'' but corrected the alignment. I will try to find and post the images.

[jpd80]

I owned an EB II and and brand new EFII at the same time and I can tell you
that the EBII had a much better set through long sweeping corners than the EF,
something was wrong with the roll centre changes.

[Crazy Dazz]

I had a couple of XFs, but only one was a sedan.

I think the fundamental problem with the base models was they were too comfortable, and this required a very soft suspension, and hence terrible body roll.

I do recall when the first XEs hit the mountain, there was an issue with "illegal shock-absorber mounts".

[Interceptor]

one of the big changes for watts link cars in racing is to change where it all mounts, with the ends of the links mounted to the rear axle housing and the centre pivot being on an adjustable pivot mounted on the body

this allows for changes in roll centre height