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This paragraph is for background the next paragraph has my question. I have been saving my pennies to drop an LS3/LSA into something (rx8, 280z, miata, something) around this time next year. I'm thinking around a 30k budget to build an everything brand new secondary daily/drift car. I already have in for 2 months of PTO to account for Murphy's Law while also getting the build done all at one time. I have also been openly looking for something that might interest me. Today I went to see a 240SX with an LS1 swap. This leads me to my question.
The car did not have a torque arm. It had control arms. I'm no suspension Guru but shouldn't it have a torque arm? If just the control arms are okay would a torque arm be better? As I tried to research the answer to this question, Watts linkages and panhard bars came up to make things even more confusing. Should I also have one of these or would just the control arms or torque bar do what I want as far as drifting goes?
This paragraph is for background the next paragraph has my question. I have been saving my pennies to drop an LS3/LSA into something (rx8, 280z, miata, something) around this time next year. I'm thinking around a 30k budget to build an everything brand new secondary daily/drift car. I already have in for 2 months of PTO to account for Murphy's Law while also getting the build done all at one time. I have also been openly looking for something that might interest me. Today I went to see a 240SX with an LS1 swap. This leads me to my question.
The car did not have a torque arm. It had control arms. I'm no suspension Guru but shouldn't it have a torque arm? If just the control arms are okay would a torque arm be better? As I tried to research the answer to this question, Watts linkages and panhard bars came up to make things even more confusing. Should I also have one of these or would just the control arms or torque bar do what I want as far as drifting goes?
Dude what? Were you searching on here? You know those cars have a totally different rear suspension than the fbody right?
They have irs, not a solid rear axle, there is no torque arm... If you are looking at 240s then check a 240 forum for mods not here.
Yea I know they have different suspension but what I was wondering was if it would benefit from having a torque arm kind of suspension instead. I had another friend tell me yesterday that it wouldn't make any difference. As far as searching goes I was looking everywhere really. Here, mustang forums, Nissan forums, etc.
Yea I know they have different suspension but what I was wondering was if it would benefit from having a torque arm kind of suspension instead. I had another friend tell me yesterday that it wouldn't make any difference. As far as searching goes I was looking everywhere really. Here, mustang forums, Nissan forums, etc.
The IRS is vastly superior. Just look around the drift scene and see if anyone has ever done that kind of suspension swap, you won't find anyone that has.
They have a multilink rear... so they have multiple sets of control arms across various planes of movement to keep the rear centered and to allow each wheel independent movement. As shown here from a 300ZX.
It's vastly superior from a ride/handling standing point.
But for straight-line traction, a 4-link with a solid rear is probably the best (still no torque arm). In a 4-link, there are 4 control arms that keep the rear from moving side to side in relation to the body, rotating up or down, or sliding forward or backward (or rotating with one side moving forward and the other side moving back). But the torque arm/control arm/panhard bar combo is very simple and works well enough.
05-20-2017, 08:49 PM
torque arm vs control arm etc. 
