If there is one thing that you can never really put a value on it is quality craftsmanship. You can certainly put a value on work that is not up to snuff and that value is both monetary and emotional. Take the owner of the Plymouth Belvedere in this video for example. This is a cool car and it seems to be pretty pissed off. In the quest for lower elapsed times and more fun, he decided to change the rear suspension to a four link style situation. This is a good idea in theory. Here? In practice it did not go so well.
As you will see, the suspension breaks almost instantly on the hit of the throttle and by theme the car gets to 60″ the rear axle is shoved up under the thing all cockeyed. From one camera angle you can see that the bracket welded to the axle tube just came off like it was zip-tied onto the third member. We’re not mocking this guy’s pain but we are telling you that there are professionals out there who do this stuff for a living and the ones we know, the reputable ones, would never let something like this happen.
We hope that the racer can get his stuff fixed up and he can get back to the track soon. Think about all the stuff that comes along with a situation like this one. It is way more than just welding on a bracket. From brake lines on down, this is a giant mess.
Do I have to say it? Old Mopars like this should have leaf springs! Not ladder bars. Even Ray Barton said that leaf sprung cars go just as fast as the four-linked cars. (The issue with the hemi S/S, he said, was that they’d wear out eventually, evidenced by the cars doing higher wheelies) But I see guys doing the ladders or 4-links as something they do just because everyone else is doing it, or tells them they should. The herd mentality.
Before all the haters get going on this, I’m not talking about leaf springs on a full chassis Daytona or whatever, I’m talking about ’60’s or ’70’s full body cars.
Another fan of keeping full bodied Mopars leaf sprung checking in. Even if I’m thinking about making some homemade slapper bars for my Dart just to irk the “Never put traction bars on a Mopar!” brigade. š
Totally agree! This guy paid extra for this mess and embarrassment!
Amen brother. No need for a 4-link in non-last effort bracket car. You can’t beat the factory leaf spring set-up with a pinion snubber. If you need to plant the tires harder, next step would be a set of Cal Tracs which basically function as leaf link suspension, which is nothing more than a simpler version of a 4-link set-up.
Leaf springs are for trailers
In response to Rodney Awesome, take your trailer to the drag strip, attach the trailer to your resend, rev up your ignorant minded mouth and see what your elapsed time is. Or do you need a 4 link? Stick to your tricycle, that sounds like it\’s your mentality and speed
If figuring out suspension geometry is a problem for you there are plenty of shops that would be happy to help. I understand if a suspension that you can tune isnāt your thing. I mean there are millions of vehicles driving around with leaf springs to this day so they canāt be all bad. Like dump trucks, semi-trucks, garbage trucks, and even Corvettes!!
“Leaf springs are for trailers”
Stick up your rear end.
In the interest of throwing gas on the fire, a Ford 9″ with Mustang style four link would be sweet! JUST KIDDING!
Nothing wrong with a 4-link if you know how to weld….
While i agree that you get what you pay for, broken parts are apart of the life. Welding is a skill that is honed only with practice, and the guy built his own car. There is already enough of the āsneer down your noseā at other racers mentality at tracks across the country. Build it, race it, break it, learn, and rebuild it better.
If racers always sent everything to be done on their cars to a professional shop, the only people who could afford to race are the owners of those shops.
Highly stressed chassis components like 4-link mounting brackets need to be welded by a professional welder. Welding is an art, once you learn and get really good at it, you maintain your proficiency at it by welding day in, and day out, not once in a while as your project warrants it.Your safety is worth the money spent. This guy is very lucky this incident didn’t happen down track.
Shit happens. Obviously his welding skills aren’t great, and now he knows that.
Lots of smart guys here calling that a four link…
Saw that too. Basic ladder bar car. From the sound and video it’s likely that it actually broke coming out of the burnout water. He “got away” with fairly minimal collateral damage – body not shredded. Also could have been a lot worse if that fuel would have caught a spark from the steel parts dragging along the track.
The word is “failure”. Stop typing like an 8-year old.
Maybe Stevie Wonder did the welding?