Macpherson struts, a-arms, front suspension brainstorm

[shuie]

I really want to build a hotrod T1 based car with a great suspension and brakes.

I've read over volkdents bolt-on A-Arm threads and Hugo's mid engine build with the Z06 suspension. Impressive, inspiring stuff. I've looked at the Rorty chassis threads here, and on other forums. I've read countless Mustang II conversion threads on other forums. I've seen the Red9Design and Eyeball Engineering stuff that's been posted on the forums. I drool over the Mendeola photos that have been posted online on a daily basis.

I don't know enough to actually calculate correct suspension geometry myself, but I have a high level understanding of how an unequal length dual a-arm wishbone suspension works vs. a Macpherson strut setup.

The dual A-arms setups adjust camber well under load, but are complicated to design and build. Bolt-on and Weld-on A-Arm units are available commercially. They are dead sexy to look at online, but have a lot of parts that can potentially fail, and are usually untested. Macpherson struts are simpler, very durable, but provide less dynamic camber adjustment. They were also good enough for Porsche for a long, long time.

Anyway, back to my brainstorm. I want to build a T1 based car with a great suspension and I'm struggling with whether I should try a dual A-arm setup or a Macpherson/coilover setup with shock towers tied into a tube frame.

Any thoughts? Are the A-arms the right way to go? Has anyone built a T1 hotrod with MacPherson style struts in the front?

Any thoughts? Advice?

TIA