Number of models Produced | |||||
Date First sold after 1945 | Pre-war models | 1945 to 1959 | 1960 to 1969 | 1970 to 1979 | 1980 to 1989 |
By Country | |||||
Austria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Czechoslovakia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
DDR | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
France | 1 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 4 |
Germany (west) | 0 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Italy | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Japan | 0 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 7 |
Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Spain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Sweden | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
United Kingdom | 9 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
USA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Yugoslavia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Europe wide | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Total | 14 | 42 | 34 | 22 | 23 |
The chassis layout used has shown the most
dramatic change in that period, as the chart below shows. Moving from universal
use of the front engine/rear wheel drive to the use of all three layouts
for over thirty years, to the almost universal use of the front engine
and front wheel drive layout.
Figure
1 Chassis Layout
The chassis types utilized have gone from
a diverse selection to the universal use of the unitary type as the chart
below shows.
The ladder frame had been used almost since
the beginning of the motorcar and didn't finally fall out of use until
the 1970's. The platform and backbone types of chassis were used for a
period of about forty years before the unitary chassis that had first
been in use before the Second World War became the universal choice.
Figure
2 Chassis Type
Suspension systems have also gone
through
great changes. Beam axles and leaf springs were used by the majority of
manufacturers up to the middle of the nineteen thirties. The cars that
were produced after the war reflected the design changes that were
introduced
in the second half of that decade. The beam axle was already falling
out
of use for the front suspension. Independent designs were soon to
become
universal.
Figure 3 Front Suspension Types
The springs used with beam axle front suspension
designs were still leaf springs, it was only how they were mounted that
showed any diversity. Independent systems on the other hand lent themselves
to a wider variety of springing mediums. Leaf springs were again used,
but other types of spring were used, torsion bars, rubber in the Mini,
hydraulic and rubber was used by BMC, also hydraulic and gas systems were
used by both BMC and Citroen before the the coil spring became dominant.
Figure
4 Front Suspension Springs Used
Read in conjunction with figure 3
The beam axle remained in use for rear suspension
systems right to the end of the period studied. At first it was live axles
used to drive the rear wheels in the the designs with the front/rear layout,
but the later use of beam axles were dead (undriven) axles used on front
wheel drive cars.
I have divided the independent rear suspension
systems into swing axle and others so that I can show the period of use
of the swing axle type of drive and suspension system. Swing axles were
used in rear wheel drive cars. The increasing adoption of the front wheel
drive system gave designers the option to use an independent type of rear
suspension without excessive cost as an alternative to the beam axle or
the torsion beam. The latter is a hybrid of the other two systems.
Figure
5 Rear Suspension Types
As beam axles were used at the rear for
a longer period of time, a greater diversity of springing medium was in
use. The simple double half elliptic spring layout had remained in use
throughout most of the period, making a comeback in the last decade. The
use of the transverse leaf spring fell out of use in a similar period as
that at the front. Torsion bar springs had limited use and the coil spring were increasingly used.
Figure 6 Rear Beam Axle Suspension SpringTypes
Read in conjunction with figure 5
Although swing axles were only used at
the beginning of the study period, a variety of spring types were used.
Transverse leaf springs were the pre war choice but torsion bars and coil
springs were used in the next decade and the only car with swing axles
introduced in the nineteen sixties used coil springs.
Figure
7 Rear Swing Axle Suspension SpringTypes
Read in conjunction with figure 5
The other forms of independent rear suspension
used a variety of spring types throughout the study period, as diverse
at the end as at the beginning. The torsion bar retaining its place throughout
and only the coil spring proving more popular.
Figure 8 Rear Independent Suspension SpringTypes . Read in conjunction
with figure 5
Up to the nineteen sixties drum brakes were the only type available for economy cars and disc brakes only became available for expensive cars a short time before. Some of the cars produced after the war had mechanical cable operated brakes, though the use of hydraulic operation soon became universal. The use of all drum brake systems persisted throughout the time period of the study, but the disc front and drum rear layout rapidly became the popular layout when disc brakes became available. A small number of cars were fitted with disc brakes front and rear during the sixties and seventies, but being expensive and not strictly necessary in a light car the layout was not used in the eighties.
Figure 9 Brake Types
Motoring
For the Masses Part Five 1953.
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