I am currently choosing rear springs for the MK1 and was after an experienced opinion on the advantage of single leaf springs similar the rally design jobs over regular multi leaf springs.

I am after a spring rate of 150lb or there abouts and the car will be 90% used for circuit racing so i couldnt care less about carrying passengers or weight in the boot.

Obviously the single leaf will physically weigh less but are there any other advantages or disadvantages?

G

Originally posted by 550hp mk2 cortina

well i used to run single leafs in the rear. It was the best rear end upgrade i made. Was a big difference in the way the car handled load and overall performance...
...The down side to them was because they are a parabolic spring, meaning they taper and get thicker in the middle they cant be re-rolled. So i ordered 2 inch lowered ones but still had to run lowering blocks to get the ride height right.
To me the block made no difference to handling and spring wind up/ tramp was less tan i got with my reset leafs
This is the only pic i could find of the car with single leafs.

WTF??

I had asked about single leaf springs in one of my posts. And i thought you might not have seen it so put it here just in case. It doesn't really answer your question in how it is better, but it does imply that 550hp Mk2 Cortina thinks they are the best thing you can do to the suspension.

I'm sorry, I wont bother next time.

Thats cool mate, i just didn't get the relavance of the picture.

What sort of tyres and are there any trailing arms?

Hey Danny

Tyres are R888 or similar on 13's. I have some twin cam trailing arms but haven't fitted them yet. Am also considering a watts link with adjustable roll centre.

Its an early MK1 shell so i cant use any of my current rear suspension from the MK2.

G

Thanks Danny

Advice appreciated

The problem with single leaves is nobody does a decent parabolic set and won't configure the eyes properly for the heights you'll be wanting without doing something stupid like fitting big lowering blocks which will only make things worse
Make sure you fit the watts pivot to the chassis so that you can fiddle with roll centres

Danny