Triumph GT6's rear suspension

[Scott Swanberg <sswan60@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AlfaNeely@domain.elided  wrote
>I think you have it backwards.  The first two or three years the
Triumph GT-6 had wire wheels and swing axles.  The GT-6 + or plus came
along in 1970 with full IRS and disk wheels to offset the cost.  To the
best of my knowledge, the square tailed and ugly final model still had
the IRS.

All the GT6's had IRS.  It was just that the Mk 1's had the cheapest and
most ineffective IRS possible, the swing axle.  Unless power was kept on
through a corner the inside rear wheel would tuck under the car and the
rear end break away.  This was due to the effects of the transverse
spring and a fixed length axle.  Yes, the next model, GT6+ used the
rubber doughnut (as Triumph called it) and a lower wishbone to correct
this problem.  This solution worked great and created a very well
handling car (as far as the chassis could take it).  What is interesting
is what they did with the later Mk3's in '73.  They completely
eliminated the lower wishbone and doughnut and went to a swing spring
which the Spitfire was using.  This was strictly a cost sharing measure,
but it worked.  They used the same layout of the Mk1's but modified the
transverse spring so that only two of the leaves were fixed at the
central pivot point.  The other 3 leaves were allowed to pivot (thus the
swing spring concept).  Supposedly this very simple arrangement just as
well as the more complicated layout of the GT6+'s and earlier Mk3's.

> My first sports car was a 1970 GT-6+.

My first car was a '67 GT-6 Mk1.  I modified it by installing a
recambered swing spring from a later year Spitfire.  Great little fun
car but very crude.  The 2 liter straight six ran smooth and could
easily be souped up but weighed as much as a small block Ford V8.
Finally replaced it with my current GTV6.  The GT6 just kept shrinking
over the years.

Scott in MN
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