Watts Link

[Anthony]

I am looking to have the side panels replaced and at the same time I am considering have watts linkage pick-ups added

 

Has there been any evaluation of this revised suspension location ?

 

I welcome views before the rear of the car is peeled off as well !

 

Many thanks

[Peter Carmichael]

I have just changed to Watts linkage. Not sure if I like it.

 

I used to use the rear steer characteristic as a principle chassis tuning method, but now I can't do that. The Watts linkage seems to be responsible for a bit more understeer than I would like and I haven't found a way to tune it out yet.

 

On the road it gives a very good compromise; the problem with radius arms was that you could get the ride height setting wrong, with very unpleasant handling characteristics resulting.

 

*thumbup*253 bhp, up and running

[Mike Bees]

Are there any adjustments on the linkage to allow the rear steer to be tuned?

 

Mike

[Miraz]

There is no harm in having the pickups installed, even if you never get round to using them.

 

Opinions on the benefits of the Watts linkage seem to be mixed, I'm not convinced that the setup is better or worse - just different.

 

I'm pretty clueless in this area, but have been trying to wrap my head round it - take my opinion with a large pinch of salt.

 

The trailing arm that is normally used to locate the end of the de-dion tube allows a small amount of rear steer as the body rolls - the amount of steer can be controlled by the position of the forward end of the arm and by the roll resistance of the rear arb.

As the outside wheel will move backwards the effect of this steering is to improve turn-in, but will make it harder to control any desired drift at the rear of the car through the rest of the turn.

 

The Watts linkage reduces the longtitudinal movement in the ends of the de-dion tube, which effectively removed this steering behaviour. It is possible to vary the length of the links, but it isn't clear to me yet how this will affect the location through the rear suspension travel.

 

The locking characteristic of the plate diff seems to have a significant effect on understeer behaviour. Istr that Peter changed to a plate diff at the same time as fitting the Watts linkage and wonder how much of the change in behaviour is attributable to this change.

 

YMMV

 

Miraz

 

Edited by - Miraz on 24 Jul 2002 12:08:58