Silver Bird |
The rear suspension is highly individual: The engine, gearbox and rear axle are solidly mounted to an articulated sub frame, the banjo housing of the Topolino live axle being cut open and bestowed with additional bridging members in order to accommodate the final drive sprocket. This sub frame was located by a ball-and-socket joint on the centreline of the chassis rear cross member and the Topolino trailing quarter-elliptical springs and lever-arm dampers, the sub-frame thus effectively forming a rather short central radius arm. Although a simple solution for the avoidance of flex of the chain drives, the resulting rear suspension geometry must have been less than ideal, and with the rear un-sprung mass constituting a very significant proportion of the car’s total mass, ride on anything but the smoothest surfaces, which were definitely not the norm when Silver Bird saw active service, must have been quite harsh. Which is probably one of the main reasons for the car being equipped with a lap belt. Wheelbase was 2000 mm, track was 1110 and 1100 mm front and rear respectively, while the car weighed in at 230 kilos. All four wheels had hydraulic brakes, while a hand brake was mounted to the rear wheels. |