When it comes to handling, its torsion bars, hands down. With the coil
spring being tall and upright, there is a certain amount of sideways
movement with a coil spring equipped car, expecially with coils on all 4
corners! GM products of the 1960's and 1970's were notorious for their
rear end "wiggle" when going across railway tracks, speed bumps and the
like.
General Motors used torsion bars on early Toronado and Eldorado models, as
well as some Chevrolet and GMC truck models.
Packard used a 4-wheel torsion bar set-up on their 1955 and 1956 models,
with one bar on each side connecting the front and rear wheel. The second
set of bars were attached to the rear and provided a built-in load-leveling
device. These Packards were noted for their handling and smooth ride, even
across railway tracks with the doors not quite closed.
As for large manufacturers, would you call Volkswagen a large manufacturer?
The VW beetle from its inception until the introduction of the Super Beetle
used transverse torsion bars, front and rear.
The Nuffield Group in Great Britain used a tosion bar system virtually
identical to the Chrysler system starting with their postwar models - Morris
Minor, Morris Oxford, Morris Six (later Isis), Wolseley 4/50, Wolseley 6/80,
Riley 1.5 and Riley 2.5. All but the Morris Minor (and its offspring -
Riley 1.5, Wolseley 1500 and Austin/Morris Marina/Ital) changed over to
coils during the 1950's. Every commentary I have read on these cars
expresses the opinion that the torsion bar models have much better handling
than their coil sprung successors.
Other British cars with torsion bars were the Jowett Javelin, Rover P-5,
MG-C, Bristol (on the rear) and Jaguar (Marks V to IX, XK-series, E-Type).
I read somewhere that the French-built Chrysler Horizon used torsion bars.
The Simca 1204 had fwd and torsion bars on all 4 wheels.
The death of the torsion bar, for Chrysler, came with the adoption of front
wheel drive and the MacPherson strut. The strut combines the shock absorber
and coil into one unit. It is compact, easy to remove/install, and can
give a soft coil-spring ride without all the shimmy-shakey-wiggles.
As for after-market suspensions, since virtually all but Chrysler (in North
America) offered coils, there is no sense in offering anything else. To
convert to torsion bars from coils would involve a massive re-engineering
feat. Take a close look at how the torsion bars are mounted in any Chrysler
car. Besides, with Chrysler's torsion bar suspension, if you want a firmer
ride, just go to a larger diameter bar. Maybe add a sway bar. You would
have a factory-built set up that would match, if not surpass, any
after-market supplier.
Bill
Vancouver, BC
> I'm just wondering which is better. I don't know of any
> large mfgr autos with torsion bars (4x4's excepted).
> Even the aftermarket suspension people who claim to use
> only the best use coil springs. What's the real scoop
> on this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> bill
> '56 DeSoto 4 door Firedome
> Atlanta, GA
>
|
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network