Quote Originally Posted by roadster32 View Post
If the top of the F1 mount was curved over towards the wheel the shocks would work much more effectively, Coming on well.
Ideally you are correct. The best location would be so the shock would be in a straight line intersecting the arc the wheel travels. So this is a compromise. Although with a solid axle the arc does not remain constant. Now mind you this is only my opinion from building and racing stock cars. Sometimes I have to remind myself I need to turn right as well..... This location was based on shock length, so there would be proper travel. The length of shock tower, adequate clearance for the steering arm on drivers side, and maintaining some angle, relative to the arc that the axle pivots around. I have found also that even rod shocks are really designed for heavier vehicles, not the lighter cars that they are installed on. The angle serves a couple of purposes. First it softens the shock some, second it offers better roll control, body roll in a turn, and third as Don pointed out is offers some lateral stability, chassis in relation to axle. And then there is ascetics. And sometimes we trade function for form, at least a little.

One of the things that I do on the transverse spring setup is to preload the spring slightly. What I mean by this is when the spring pivots are tightened they actually pull on the spring. For a 26" spring I use 31" inside to inside between pivot mounts. So when I tighten up pivot bolts it pulls the spring about 1/4" to 3/8". I hope that makes sense. Now I may be wrong, wouldn't be the first time, but when I hear talk of a panard bar on a transverse spring setup, even with cross steer, I feel that the front end is not properly set up. I feel too much slop in spring shackles is the real cause. A preload on the spring acts to center the chassis to the axle and offer some amount of force to uncenter it. The normal force of cross steering action should not want to move the axle laterally in relation to the chassis. As stated before, just my opinion. Now coil on front, ie the way Roth used them on many of his rods is entirely different.