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Radios and Rear Camber

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Radios and Rear Camber
From: ctschmitz@west.raytheon.com
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 11:16 -0800 (PST)
     Uh, no, I'm not saying you can get one with the other.
     
     On the radio thread - I have installed gauges in the radio opening of 
     the scuttle support. I've always figured that I couldn't hear a radio 
     at speed, since I can't hardly hear myself think. Lately I've been 
     reconsidering this, and would like to install a radio/CD player in the 
     trunk, with some sort of control head or remote in the cockpit. 
     Blaupunkt used to make a radio with a control head, this was back in 
     the early '80s. Has anybody gone this route?
     
     Rear camber - I used to play around with Corvairs. These cars also had 
     no real provision for decambering the rear end other than chopping the 
     rear springs. Decambering was a good thing with these cars as it 
     improved the handling, but it also tended to lower the back end of the 
     car. While overall lowering of the car was a good thing, the change in 
     spring rate was not always what was desired. The trick on these cars 
     was to cut a coil off of the rears and move them to the front, then 
     install factory competition springs in the rear. This lowered the car 
     a couple of inches overall and gave some slight decamber to the rear 
     wheels. I used another trick to precisely decamber the rear, after 
     having installed the stiffer springs. I fabricated engine mount 
     spacers which lowered the transaxle, which decambered the rear end 
     without lowering the body of the car itself.
     
     On the Spitfire one might be able to tune the rear camber quite 
     precisely by spacing the axles outward at the U-joints or spacing the 
     differential downwards. Haven't really thought this one through as I 
     have no intention of pursuing it, so just food for thought.
     
     The point here is that you may be able to change the geometry of the 
     car by thinking a little differently about the problem, and that 
     change will be reversible, simple, and hopefully inexpensive.
     
     Tom

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