Wishbone compare anything log in4/5/2023 ![]() ![]() They are hard to package on any car that prioritizes cabin space, double hard on a compact car, triple hard on a compact car with front-wheel drive. There are so many parts to manufacture, and they take up a great deal of room. The problem with a double wishbone layout is that while it’s a dream for a driver, it’s a nightmare for a major car company. Two wishbones plus a tie rod is five links. To control each, you need a link of some sort, and a suspension wishbone is essentially just two connected links. ![]() The job of an independent suspension is to control-or as Satchell puts it, "severely" limit-five directions of tire motion: Bump/jounce, rebound/droop, lateral, longitudinal, and camber. "For an independent suspension, be it front or rear, the assemblage of control arms is intended to control the wheel motion relative to the car body in a single prescribed path," he wrote. Terry Satchell, a former engineer for both Penske racing and GM, defines it well in Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, one of the best books on the subject. To understand why a double-wishbone setup is held up as some kind of platonic ideal, let's start with the basics of independent suspension. Yet, the GR86 has excellent handling and proved to be a very worthy adversary to the Miata. In my mind, the double wishbones at the front of the Miata make it a more "pure" sports car than the GR86, with its MacPherson strut front (a consequence of its distant mass-market-car roots). While a car is so much more than its spec sheet, I do like taking a good look at the mechanical makeup of a car to try and explain why it feels the way it does. It was our recent comparison test between the Mazda Miata and the new GR86 that got me thinking about this. ![]()
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