Getting round the limitation of solid beam rear axles - Leon Mk1

[warren_cox]

I was daydreaming at work the other day (sat in one of those meetings where you end up switching off and gawping out the window).

I started thinking about suspension mods that I wanted to do to the car, and couldn't help but feel that other than the front wheel drive issue, one of the other big limitations of handling is the solid beam rear axle. The new mutlilink cars have far better handling, and this got me sketching rear beams and wondering whether you could design or develop a rear beam configuration that would mimic multi link suspension by creating something that in its design shape looked similar but had flexi bushing / pivots that would allow more controlled rear end handling.

I know it would be a costly exercise, as the design requirements would have to give consideration to for things like the exhaust passing through, but does anyone on here know if it would be feasible to build a custom rear axle beam that didn't rely on basic material flex and actually had a controlled linkage design?

 

[Icecavern]

Anything is possible if you're willing to pay...

 

[ibizacupra]

I was daydreaming at work the other day (sat in one of those meetings where you end up switching off and gawping out the window).

I started thinking about suspension mods that I wanted to do to the car, and couldn't help but feel that other than the front wheel drive issue, one of the other big limitations of handling is the solid beam rear axle. The new mutlilink cars have far better handling, and this got me sketching rear beams and wondering whether you could design or develop a rear beam configuration that would mimic multi link suspension by creating something that in its design shape looked similar but had flexi bushing / pivots that would allow more controlled rear end handling.

I know it would be a costly exercise, as the design requirements would have to give consideration to for things like the exhaust passing through, but does anyone on here know if it would be feasible to build a custom rear axle beam that didn't rely on basic material flex and actually had a controlled linkage design?

Search around for the kitcar ibiza's and golfs.. and see what they did the the rear beam.

 

[warren_cox]

F2 Ibiza Rear Axle Beam

Hmmm, not quite what I had in mind but interesting - cheers for the pointer Bill

 

[Yumann]

The cupra championship cars use rear multi link suspension off the cupra4.

I don't know if it would fit on to a fwd car tho because i think the cupra championship cars use the cupra 4 chassis.

 

[m0rk]

You'd need to buy a 4WD chassis for that to work.

http://www.seatcupra.net/images/news_marchcupra_test240304/cupratestmarch27.jpg - not my best pic, but you can just make stuff out.

Plus you'd have an ARB going through the wheel well.

basically anything you'd want to do (I did sketch something up once) will need removal of the spare wheel well, so you can mount something solid there to bolt a subframe to.