Re: Lower Control Arm Links

[tobyp@xxxx]

Rich - That would be me and Winged1 (my car). As far as I know, 
this is the only example of this mod. I wanted to find out what 
effect a triangulated lower control arm support setup would have on 
handling and stability during heavy braking. I am very pleased with 
the result, although there is a little more road noise transmitted 
through the links into the frame. They allow full range of vertical 
motion in the front suspension, and yet do a great job of preventing 
fore / aft motion during braking and in hard corners. They are kind 
of ugly in prototype form. I used mild steel tube for the link 
bodies, and some very hi-tech spherical rod ends. These links have 
been on the car for over a year, and my last inspection showed no 
adverse loading to the frame or the lower control arms. My next 
version will use stainless steel tubes. I haven't yet decided if I 
am going to promote this modification in a kit form ... I need to 
work on getting some cost out of the rod ends before it would be 
realistic to produce this setup. The original idea was to eliminate 
the front sway bar function as a locating feature of the control 
arms, but I haven't attempted to detach the sway bar yet to test the 
concept. That way, the sway bar could be optimized for what it's 
supposed to do, rather than doing double duty as a sway bar and a 
suspension link. I am talking to a German bearing manufacturer 
right now about a different rod end that would be nearly as good, 
but at far lower cost. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Toby Peterson VIN 2248 (Winged1)
DeLorean Parts Northwest, LLC 
www.delorean-parts.com

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "cruznmd" <racuti1@xxxx> wrote:
> In Photos, under "Techie Stuff" you'll see someone has made links 
for the lower control arms. Can someone tell me more about this? Do 
many people have this mod? Is it a good idea? What does it do to the 
handling of the car? Who did it?