Rear axle location

[Michael Beattie]

Guys

I have just finished my first rally in the HF.

Here in Ireland the "Classic" rallies run using regularities ( boring !!) and autotests for their competitive elements during daylight hours. At night there is a good old fashioned "Hell for Leather" road rally, which more than compensates !!

The autotests include the usual 360 degree handbrake turns round pylons etc. I have a hydraulic handbrake fitted and the Lancia twirls round the pylons reasonably well, though not as quick as a Mini.

A friend was watching one test and commented that the back axle seemed to be moving about quite a bit laterally as well as vertically.

Has anyone added extra axle location to the rear of a Fulvia?

Pic of car in action, for no other reason than it looks good

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Some years ago, I did consider this aspect, mainly as a result of reading Allen Staniforth's book about race and rally preparation - "The Race and Rally car Source Book". In this he covered amongst many other things, controlling and changing the roll centre location.

Now of course the Fulvia does have its Panhard Rod, and whilst these are very useful, there is the problem of "jacking" in extremis.

Probably the best thing would be to have someone to video the car in action and study the footage afterwards to establish exactly what is happening.

If there really is substantial lateral movement, then one possible solution would be to make a Watts Linkage, or perhaps a "Woblink" (see Staniforth). However, such devices will lower the rear roll centre (not necessarily a good thing) and the car will have to be "re-learnt".

Of course all this assumes that the original installation is all in perfect order!

Paul