[FC] 1964 camber compensator

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

Since I have always had difficulty understanding the dynamics of the 
1964 rear suspension and why the transverse spring works, I found this 
item while looking for something else ...

A pretty good lay description of the "camber compensator", which was 
installed on the 1964 Corvair comes from  Pat Tobin discussing the same 
item, which was factory equipment on some models of the 356 Porsche, on 
the 356 Registry's talk list:

Remember that both the early Porsche and Beetle used transverse torsion 
bars instead of coil springs.

"Others have correctly stated that the improvement in cornering came not 
so much from the [camber compensator] itself as from the softer rear 
torsion bars which softened the roll stiffness in the rear so that more 
of the cornering load was transferred to the outside front wheel. Since 
the car is tail heavy, that tended to even up the dynamic weight 
distribution between the outside tires.

"But just softening the rear torsion bars would then mean that the tail 
would be too soft, hitting bottom all the time especially if there was a 
load in the rear seat. The spring [effect of the rear camber 
compensator] bar added spring stiffness in the vertical plane without 
adding to the roll stiffness." -- Pat Tobin, 356Talk

Which brings to mind the question of whether or not the front coil 
springs in a '64 were notably different that the earlier cars - the 
rears were lighter and differed side to side.  Crawford Rose posted the 
64 spring specs back in  Jan 2007 -- 
http://www.vv.corvair.org/pipermail/virtualvairs/2007-January/055973.html

Bill Strickland