Sure you didn't mean Shane Satchwell there Converted? He used to run the Killer White 1200 ute with self built independant rear suspension. Last I heard of the car before he sold it was that he wanted to convert to SR power

I think Satchell was an American guy - you can see what a Satchell link is halfway down this link.

http://www.carbibles.com/suspension_bible.html

Like this pic - just imagine leaf spring instead of coil spring.

there a guy in townsville name Wayne Satchell who has raced 1200's for many years and who recently bought my yellow coupe wonder if its the same person?
He told me he spent 10' of thousands developing the rear of his 1200ute and cant wait to see if my JTS coupe is better or worse...oh by the way my old coupe will be powered by an ex-works BTCC SR20 rated at 320bhp (alot more than my 180bhp SR20)

Good to know Harry

I also have looked at little into a Satchell link - which can alter suspension geometry a bit - it's meant to be another alternative to a panhard/watts for lateral support.

I imagine a watts linkage might be easiest to adjust though.

EDIT: Here's your pic converted.



I will definitely by ordering some JTS springs - and good point about bushes converted will either get the bushes from JTS as well or chat further with you to make sure I get the right ones.

I'll be driving my CA coupe before and after JTS springs to see how much difference they make, then probably looking at getting some camber on the rear to see the difference there too.

It' great to get this info out to all of us Datto drivers, last thing we want is a car that doesn't handle corners!

Harry is completely correct these springs are no where near a modern well set-up IRS car however over any other solution as far as a 1200 is concerned I know of no better spring. I do know some people Chris (aka Dattoman) on the club has converted the rear to a 4 link setup, however he has yet to prove it in race conditions.
Also if you go for this then the forward upper leaf spring mounting bushes need to remain stock as having nolathane in then ties the back up too much making the high speed twitch worse.
I think what myself and Harry means by mid corner twitch is that the car wants to swap ends especially when you are about to apply power this is not what you want to happen.
The rear camber did dial alot of that out and the yellow car around the same track with the same engine was considerably faster with the same rear setup...only thing different was the camber.
I dont think a sway or pahard will help much its the contact pad of the tyre which is compromised at this stage. You can see here in this photo the rear really fighting for grip in mid corner compared to the front. the sidewall is bending over itself and the contact pad is minimised.
[img]http://datsun1200.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=5882&full=1[/img]

This would be especially bad in Harrys car cause of the extra power he is carrying and speed into the corner..it would be un-nerving. However again its the best setup that i know for a 1200 at this stage...

Quote:

yep, sway bars to stiffen it up a bit or a well engineered watts link to alter/adjust the rear roll centre.

I'm going the sway bar route because it worked very well on my old coupe.

Would these springs be suitable for the heavier 120Y coupe?

What else can we do?

Add a sway bar?

Or is it the solution to go with a 4 link setup and forget the leaves altogether?

IMO the JTS springs are too soft on their own. You get too much body roll. you loose all your static camber, and thanks to the strut front end's poor dynamic control of roll centres, that goes haywire as well. So in long sweepers you get a car that by mid corner behaves totally differently than it did when you turned in. And you still have the most important part of the corner to go - the exit... where you start to really try to get on the power, transferring more weight to the rear and compounding the problem! Turn 2 at QR is nasty in my coupe - doesn't help that there is a massive bump right on the apex.

Its not such a problem on short, low speed corners as the shock helps initially, the loads generated aren't as great, and you can set the car up in the first half of the corner to overcome the problems. Can't do that in long sweepers, you're stuck with what your setup gives you by mid corner.

Good news converted

I think I might look into the whole rear so shocks and some new bushes on both leaf shackles too.

Do you still remember all the part numbers? Or could we get JTS to supply all new bushes too?

Also I like the sound of on car adjustable shocks - I might check out these spax shocks.

Thanks for the advice!

Now that I can see light at the end of the tunnel (CA coupe nearly done) I'm already thinking about suspension....