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Hi Anders,
I'm enjoying this debate.
I appreciate that the caster can be controlled at the strut top but the range of adjustment is limited by the body shell. A compression strut has the advantage of potentially more adjustment. Also, the loads are fed back into the strongest part of the chassis and it gets rid of the anti-roll bar locating the axle.
I agree the inner mounting for the TCA looks weak but having looked at the forces involved they are well up to the job. I would only beef them up for rallying where inpact damage was a possibility. The inner TCA mounting bracket on ours has a lower pair of slotted holes that I used to provide the pivot point.
I agree in general with what you say about camber change but my reason for doing it was that the roll couple was increased that then loaded up the outer front wheel in the turn to improve grip. Also, the front roll centre was lowered by doing this so that the couple in dive was increased to again load up the front especially under braking in the turn. the actual camber change is relatively small with mine being set statically at -1.5* that should give a 0*- (+)0.5* at full roll.
I understand now your rear suspension however, don't dismiss the strength of the alloy arms as Porsche used the same technology and layout in their 935 long distance racers with a uniball rear and coilovers. The coilovers were racing spring rate with their heavy 6 cylinder rear end. My concern was not with the lower bolt, which is M14 high tensile but with the top mount in the beetle which is only M12 and desperately needs the cross bracing afforded by the 5 bar cup brace
The rear end bushings are now explained for me - thank you.
Keep us all up to date with progress.
Clive
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