Fred Griffiths wrote:
>
> I've been reading a book on antique autos, and often come up with
> vhicles from very early vintage (1900-) mentioning using a De Dion
> system, or motor, or rearend. I read about De Dion Bouton being
> designers in France in the early years, but exactly is a De Dion rear
> end? I see it mentioned in modern cars also.
>
> Appeciate clarification. Who knows, Perhaps my spit already has a De
> Dion set up?
> Cheers, Fred
>
Nope. Some of the Caterham 7's did have DeDion rear supsension though.
It is sort of a cross betwen live axle and IRS. The diff is mounted
to the car, and half-shafts with 2 ujoints each are used, but the two
hubs are connected with a solid beam, makeing it behave much like a
solid axel. The main advantage is that the diff is not part of the
unsprung weight, and the wheels can be prevented from going through
the sub-optimal camber changes that many IRS systems suffer from.
I'm going from memory of Herb Adams (of GM fame) book here. His
opinion was that the DeDion could perform well, but was overly
complex.
Any out there know the history of Mr DeDion ?
--
Reed Mideke rfm(at)cruzers.com
If that doesn't work: rfm(at)portalofevil.com
InterBase build instructions: www.cruzers.com/~rfm
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