Ottonaut

A race car that I recently purchased was allegedly a SCCA car, which I got from a guy, who got it from a guy, etc.

The original owner who actually raced the car seems to have known what they are doing when looking at the 12A rats nest removal, spec RB parts, tokico illuminas, billet suspension bits, good brake cooling. Its got all the goods.

The car has the axle from what looks like a 84 GSL (disk).There is no watts link or stabilizer bar in the rear.

Instead, There is a custom panhard (track) bar in the rear, and some link with sphericals going from the diff to the tunnel. Essentially its been converted from the original 5/watts link to a 3-link/Panhard setup.

The upper control arms are still in place, but the bushings have been taken out and replaced with soft foam. I can only imagine this is to prevent the links from rattling too loudly, or to limit travel? Why keep them? Was it a spec series that required you to have the links for weight?

There are also rebound straps/wire from the lower shock bolt going up to the frame (Definitely to limit travel). Maybe to induce the car to turn once you lift an inside wheel?

I know this much of a tearup wasn't something this previous owner did for no reason.... I've also read Norm DeWitt's "Making it faster" Which descibes the troubles they had when setting up the IMSA ITU FB back in the 80's.

Roll Centers??
Effectively if the 3-link allows one to move the roll center further down in ways you couldn't have done with the watts.

Stiffness?
Common SAE engineers know that watts links have way too much compliance to enable ride performance. For race cars, you'd want to run sphericals in them. You could tune the roll center with hardpoint placement, but you really have only so much to work with.

The 3-link conversion would allow you to get the compliance issue solved, but then you get to the next part..

Asymmetry - the car becomes asymmetric because of the panhard.

Maybe the guy was running oval?

My thought are that if the springs are tight enough, the car could be flat in corners and feel more symmetric, and you'd use the spacing of the track bar from the axle to move the roll stiffness instead of tuning the anti-roll bar(as you would with the watts)

This effect allows you to actually get the FB to turn in, and you'd get roll oversteer..

Whats everyone's thoughts? Has anyone else seen or done this?!

This whole mess of work that previous guy did to the car, makes me hesitant to undo it and convert back to the standard Watts with sphericals to solve the compliance.

Thanks!