The hidden truth on Beck Spyders – the below is a mishmash of Beck “common sense” since I bought my kit. Solutions may follow.

Feel that chafing tire when cutting your wheels to the left or right in you Beck spyder?

Chuck Beck did something back in the 1990’s that shifts the left front tire into the fiberglass wheel arch. See my Run and Gun 1995 short youtube and hear the grinding of the Beck california factory car. The thing Beck did was weld the front stock torsion beams to the left.

Stock geometry is then supposed to work – source Person to person discussion at Firebird Raceway, Run and Gun 1995.

“Supposed” is a big word.

With 185Michelin XZX front tires that Beck originally recommended and I tried, the tire edge chafed the inside of the left wheel arch. Changing the wheel offset still limits turning radius and rubs inside of wheel well. See wiki for wheel geometry and offset. In 2011, I went with 135 Michelin X front tires and get clearance . Spyders were race designed. Low speed turns did not require that the front wheels steer drastically. Street driving makes it desirable to make the turn radius smaller. However, speeding up the wheel steer angle [such is done with early Bugs] change might create rollover threat. Believe it or not, many of the early extended road races involved Spyders using power to steer the vehicle using oversteer on loose roads. Very long races on rock and dirt were big winners for the team Porsche drivers.

Old race movie reels showed that a tightened fist could fit between the front tire and the wheel arch. Have you seen any Beck kits with that much clearance?

The fist/spacing may have an unexpected source. Front tire loading on 1950’s Spyders was variable due to fuel tank location. The front gas tank was sized  up to 26 gallons. That’s over 200 pounds directly over the front axle!

I am working with some new folks on wheel/alignment/swingaxle geometry.

More caster in front seems to be a good thing.

Get toe-in correct.

Front camber angle has suggestions all over the map. I am going for zero. After all, this is a street driver. I want stability above 40MPH [not happening now – summer 2011.]  I would like to raise the front by using a taller front shock set [coil overs front and rear.]

Going back to front Camber – supposed to be very close to zero. However, with a dry weight of 1200 pounds and my weight of 300 pounds, tilt is a factor. The small front wheels lower the front too. Therefore caster is near zero and causes wandering.

I have a Kharman Ghia front sway bar I would like to fit.

Shaking the front wheels side to side seems to indicate wheel bearings are loose. Full grease replacement of the front wheel bearings is prudent.

Along with front shock problem, rear springs can not be set high enough to obtain adequate camber. The sagging rear 3.88 final drive dries the outer bearings and causes high heat in bearings. Rear toe in is not adjustable with the Spyder replica.

With delrin front bushings and urethane rear bushings, rattle is extreme. Recommendations for this problem???

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Added notes –
I watched a number of vintage films of the real Spyders this week. Front clearances [loaded vehicle] as seen directly from the side showed a broad fist width between the top of the tire and the wheel arch. This would raise the car at least 4 inches in the front. In fact, with the much smaller diameter wheels, five or six inches would be more reasonable.

Rear suspension has two factors to determine the clearance between the tire top and the inside of the wheel arch.
1.    Does clearance actually increase if the target is to eliminate sag????
2.    By raising the front, the rear height factor is determined by getting the frame ground clearance to near parallel [front to back body pan parallel to the ground.] . Real Spyders actually had a minor up drift going from the BACK to the FRONT.   Why all the lift? Running the Carrera Panamericana needed clearance for large stones.

Summary of these notes
Increase rear spring rate to eliminate sag. Combine rear elevation with front elevation to bring car clearance to road. Five or six inches of road clearance must also result in the frame with a rise in clearance from the back to the front. Keep in mind driver weight and up to 100 pounds of fuel. Clearance of front tire to wheel arch in body to a broad fist distance. Even more due to the small tires. Spring rate or design knowledge in the front geometry are very important.

Finally, in this video of the era, see how far the left front is located with the 16 very narrow tires.    Look around these vintage videos. Low cars had tires tucked way under.