[Fot] Trackwidth of Spitfire 1500

[Joe Curry]

Oops, that should have read 49" (124.5).  I copied the rear track in cm from
the Mk1-MkIV models.

Joe C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Porter [mailto:mdporter at dfn.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 3:11 PM
To: Joe Curry
Cc: 'MadMarx'; fot at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Fot] Trackwidth of Spitfire 1500

  On 8/26/2010 2:40 PM, Joe Curry wrote:
> According to the Haynes manual, the track of a Spitfire 1500 is:
>
> Front: 49" (121.9 cm)
> Rear: 50" (127 cm)
>

Hmm, the rear track inches to centimeters conversion is correct, but, 
the front is not.  121.9 cm is 47.99", which would be rounded to 48".


Depends on which measurement comes from the factory, I suppose, and 
where the track is supposed to be measured.  I always thought that the 
track was supposed to be measured through the center of the wheel, in 
order to minimize the distortions in the measurement occurring due to 
camber, and because camber is variable across the range of motion.  For 
the Spit, even if the outside front track allowable by the rules was 51 
inches and change, modest camber changes would take up a lot of that 
three-inch difference, since the stock Spit has maybe 1-1/2 deg. 
positive camber to begin with, presuming that track is measured at the 
bottom of the wheel.


In this case, at any rate, I'd trust the factory figures, rather than 
those in Haynes, if some baseline is necessary.


Cheers.

-- 


Michael Porter
Roswell, NM


Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking
distance....