FYI, the interesting shot is img_4489.jpg, I think.
On 10 Aug 2008 at 14:57, pethier@comcast.net wrote:
> As much as we might not like to admit it, Ralph Nadar was
> right about this.
I would quibble about Mr. Nadar being enough of an engineer to
understand what he was complaining about. The Corvair, the subject
of his book Unsafe At Any Speed on which he made his reputation, was
not so unsafe as he claimed. True, the Spitfire's original swing
axle was indeed problematic. However there have been some successful
ones too. Mercedes Benz used it but with a geometry that gave it a
much lower pivot axis. That's the key, of course, keeping the angle
between tire contact patch and pivot more nearly horizontal so that
the sum of the cornering vector and the weight vector never add up to
point lower than the pivot.
But it's a rear suspension, right? So it's all behind us now.
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
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