Pics of rear suspensions

Hey guys, any pics of your gasser rear suspensions, or any from other sources? I'd sure like to see how they were done back in the day, just for reference. Been trying to get in my head how I could make a long ladder bar type traditonal old school ladder bar suspension but still retain some suspension articulation for bumps and driveways etc. Without the stiffness of locked up ladders. I was thinking of building a long, straight four link suspension, with parallel bars. The bottom bar looking like a traditonal girder ladder bar but the top links would be bars up out of sight of the same length. It would give the look and the lift of a single ladder bar but the articulation of a four link. ?? Any thought from you guys on my idea? It would still need either a panhard, a watts, or a cross link for side stability. Possibly using a Johnson Joint at the front mount points. Or could that leave it too loose? Remember this is for a street strip car. Steve, any thoughts? Mark L

I use a standard true 4 link that I built myself. The bars are 17 inches long dictated by the chassis design....pro street I also use a panhard bar that is as long as possible. I made a special mount on the rear end offset to one side for max length. A little run thru my stress calculator finished it off. I also made a very stiff anti-roll bar. Call it a sway bar if you want....it prevents rear chassis roll. Believe me with a narrowed rear end and the coil overs mounted way inboard there is very little rear roll stifness. A little testing with an open rear end proved this. Instant blow off of the right rear tire. The anti roll bar is pre loaded a bit and the left front coil over adds a little wedge. It took a couple tests to get it right but even with an open diff I could launch straight with both tires just hazzing. Then I added the Locker for strength. works great. You just have to be careful going around left hand turns. Cloverleafs work great however. I since have backed off a little on the wedge since I put 99% of my miles on just crusing. I can always add a few turns wedge if I hit the track.

I also tried a diagonal track bar or diagonal link if you want to call it that. This caused a spooky handling situation that I didn't want so I removed it and went back to the panhard bar. Tested back to back by the way. I don't have any room at all for a wishbone. I think the slider part would wear with all the driving I do in the rain and dirt roads. Bad enough the way it is.

I also tried a front anti roll bar. All of the stock Must II ones are way too stiff for my little car so I plan on building one this summer just to try out. I have plenty of front roll stiffness as it is but clover leafs tend to load up the front end and I'm pretty low to the ground anyway so it may help some and definitely would help on the left hand turns.