IRS sounds good on paper and made for some slick ads. But if you look at any car, I'll bet you'll find some kind of "connection". Such as a anti-sway bar. Truly independent is bad. Lots of body roll for one.
But is it truly independent, or does it have some kind of cross-connection?Even Mustang has gone IRS.
You didnt understand the point of my thread : Its not that an IRS cannot be better, its the fact that it isnt garantied to be better.IRS can provide better ride and handling over uneven / poor surfaces. Even Mustang has gone IRS. A Cruze on race track should handle well - surfaces are pretty flawless.
The Cobalt is a great exemple of what Tuning can do : The last SS they made, the one that has the Ring record, is a very impressive car, but the same year, you could buy a base Cobalt and those cars were horible, lol.I am fully for this argument. The Cobalt SS had the FWD production car record around Nuerburgring (which actually has quite a few bumpy, uneven turns) with it's Torsion beam rear suspension.
My car has those struts and shocks, the 1mm larger SS/SC FE5 front sway bar, FE5 cast aluminum control arms and the big 1.25" Powell Hardcore bar out back, and with the sticky ZIIs on there...the handling is outstanding - and yet, it still rides great (even with lowering springs) and 40-series, stiff-sidewall Direzza ZIIs with basically no tread pattern (most of the tire is contact patch).
Or, you could say it's all about execution. There is no technology so superior that it can't be messed up with bad execution.It's all about the Tuning.
Yup - and having gone from one end of the spectrum with the factory FE1 4x4 lift kit to the SS/TC FE5 shocks/struts (with the other stuff) on the same car - it was night and day.The Cobalt is a great exemple of what Tuning can do : The last SS they made, the one that has the Ring record, is a very impressive car, but the same year, you could buy a base Cobalt and those cars were horible, lol.
A base Cobalt would be upset by any kind of bump in mid-corner, but the SS would be rock solid. That's tuning.
Ok - so I have a car that has a De Dion rear suspension - do a search - this truly connects both sides of the suspension. Alfa and Aston Martin I believe are a few of the rare cars with this type of rear "independent" suspension. The Alfa Milano Zagato SZ could pull 1.4 g cornering with this suspension - 1989 to 1991 very limited production. This car was also known as Il Monstro / ES-30.But is it truly independent, or does it have some kind of cross-connection?
The only cars on sell right now with fully independant suspension are the Mclaren, they have no Anti-roll bars, only an hydraulic transfer system to counter weight transfer. (Except the new 570)Ok - so I have a car that has a De Dion rear suspension - do a search - this truly connects both sides of the suspension. Alfa and Aston Martin I believe are a few of the rare cars with this type of rear "independent" suspension. The Alfa Milano Zagato SZ could pull 1.4 g cornering with this suspension - 1989 to 1991 very limited production. This car was also known as Il Monstro / ES-30.
The problem is the 99.9% of other buyers who just assume "IRS" is better because "They heard it somewhere", probably the internet, because its always right.Good. Majority of peeps here understand and agree! :grin:
with some rebound,compression and spring tuning im sure it would make the ind way smoother i and out of turns but again its all in tuning. most riders and drivers arent good enough to surpass stock tuning.The last cars I've owned with IRS with both old Buick Lesabres. For a nice ride on a rough road not sure it can be beat. It does add some body roll so handling is adversely effected.
about 15 years ago my two brothers both bought new 4 wheelers. One was a Polaris Scrambler 500 4x4(solid rear axle) and the other a Polaris Sportsman 500 4x4 (IRS). Going across a plowed field at 40mph with the solid axle rode so rough your eyes would vibrate and you could not see(I'm not kidding). The IRS was smooth as silk in comparison.
However all of us much preferred the solid axle, you could drift/slide the rear on demand with just a little throttle input, making it have much better handling. There also was no perceivable sway in the back end, the IRS on the sportsman you could feel it dip left/right with turns.