Why did the 356 have different wheel tracks, front to rear: 1306 mm and 1272 mm. What are the considerations related to this?
Edit: The difference is 34 mm, or 1.34 inches. Seems fairly significant to me.
Front and rear wheel track
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Front and rear wheel track
Last edited by Edwin Ek on Thu Oct 19, 2017 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Martin Benade
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Re: Front and rear wheel track
I imagine one consideration was that the rear was set by the width of the VW transaxle/axles. The front was not locked in so much by VW dimensions, the front to rear difference is a little different between the two cars.
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Re: Front and rear wheel track
"The front was not locked in so much by VW dimensions, the front to rear difference is a little different between the two cars"
Really?? How? The trailing arms are VW, as were the early spindles. To the best of my knowledge The later spindles gave the same track.
Maybe later VWs had different front track, but not the early ones; or am I assuming something incorrect?
Really?? How? The trailing arms are VW, as were the early spindles. To the best of my knowledge The later spindles gave the same track.
Maybe later VWs had different front track, but not the early ones; or am I assuming something incorrect?
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Re: Front and rear wheel track
The 1964 VW bug had a slightly different wheel track at the rear. It was actually 0.7" wider than the 356 while there was only a 0.1" difference in the front with the VW being the wider. I read somewhere that this was designed in to give better handling because of the rear engine configuration and the swing axle. Cannot remember were I read it though. The later VW beetle after 65 with the ball joint front suspension went with a very slight increase in front track. When they went to the IRS transaxle they increased the rear track to 53" which must have been because of the different suspension characteristics. One wonders what that would do for the 356 handling.
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Re: Front and rear wheel track
The width of the front track was set by the torsion bar length (and tubes) which may not have been stock VW parts on the early Porsche. I agree that all the other parts would give the same dimensions. According to track widths I looked up, the VW and Porsche did not have exactly the same front-to-rear track differences, although that could have been all a function of the brake drums as well. Will the front torsion bars interchange? Also it was 1967 and newer VW that had longer rear axles at the rear.
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62 Cabriolet
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02 IS 300
04 Sienna