Thread: Take the poll: Red hairpins? Or chrome hairpins?

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Like I said Dave, I know in theory you are absolutely correct, and I have seen all the diagrams showing axle arc, twist, etc. But what I am saying is that hairpins and split bones aren't the doom and gloom engineering everybody makes them out to be. If they were, you wouldn't see them on the market, and being used almost exclusively on the majority of T buckets and similar cars turned out by companies like Total Performance, etc.

Let's face it, NO straight axle setup we use is perfect. It is 100 year old technology, and even though we have made improvements over the years, it will never compare to a properly setup IFS . But, we use them because we do like the looks, so we make them operate as well as possible.

Although I have had a bunch of cars over the years with hairpins and split bones, the one I drove the most was my '27. This was pretty much my daily driver for about 7 years, day in day out. I could run down the interstate at 70 or 80 and it tracked like an arrow, and in the turns it never wandered. So I am not talking from a position of not living behind the wheel for many miles.

I simply want to make the point that not all cars HAVE to scrap these in favor of four bars and still be a very good driving machine.

Don




Here's a very traditional looking coupe with full IFS and IRS....



Yes, but it also has fenders.