Which(rear ) suspension to choose?

When considering a new build turn-key speedster which type of suspension should one choose,a swing-arm or an IRS type?

If you have an IRS "donor pan"does that mean it comes with a balljoint front suspension instead of a torsion bar design?

Am not clear which cars(VW's)came which way. What are the pro's and con's?

IRS came out mid '68 and on. All had ball joint. No link pin.
Better for cornering auto-cross, etc.
Downside? Not as good for drag racing. four-bolt wheel pattern. PIA to run any rim wider than a 4-1/2", especially if you go with rear discs.
I wanted it on my car and if you look at my photo file you will see I found a way around wheel selections...;)

all are torsion bar - independent - front and rear.

if i could pick - i'd go with Linkpin front and IRS rear. linkpin doesn't screw with Camber when you raise and lower it and seems like a more elegant solution. BJ is fine though.

depending on your location, you can get balljoint swing axles (mexico) in 68+ years. i just saw 2 of them and had to do a double take.

thesamba.com has every VW related answer you'll ever come up with.

I don't know about the US, but in 73 the a semi auto beetle came out here (OZ) and it had the IRS and tor bar front end with discs, they are a bit had to find but about, and you can recover most of the cost by selling the auto, ( or make an auto speedster ) another option is to buy two cars and marry em together during the shortening process Bill

Or you can buy my "SuperBeetle Conversion Kit"!

It converts a late-model (1971-1978) McPherson-Strut Superbeetle to a torsion bar front end so you can fit it under a Speedster body.

Comes complete with the adapter plate (which is a bolt-in), all necessary hardware and complete instructions. You need to supply the torsion bar ball-joint front end (which is also a bolt-in). There is no welding involved and it is self-aligning. How cool is THAT?

gn

..or if you really want to spend some coin you can buy the Mendeola A-arm suspension for the front and DeDion for the rear - all using coil-overs. Looks sweet, but much $$$

I saw that adapter in the CMC manual, Cool!
BUT- does it lower the front end? or is that mo' money?

I have IRS and in order to maintain camber(when lowering) in the rear, I simply swapped trailing arms left to right and flipped them! I was able to verify proper camber before i used the sawzall to remove the shock mounts, flipped them and welded them back on exactly where they were before. Now since the body was off, it was VERY easy! I took the arms off, loaded em into the blazer and took it to a shop with a big impact gun so that he could remove the big nuts for me. At that time, the shop could easily have done the welding for me, if needed! At that time i could have lowered the bottom shock mount to maintain stock shock length, but it fit so good i left it.
Altho it sounds like a PITA, its really not, especially compaired to lowering a swing axle. My friend raised his engine to maintain camber on it!!
When getting your donor remember that you will be lowering and upgrading the entire suspension, so think in terms of minimalist. You will most likely replace/upgrade all bushings, sway bars, ball joints, spindles, discs, etc. etc.
good luck!

Bill:

What I have is a CMC/Fiberfab front conversion kit.

It does not lower the front end, but puts the torsion bar beam right where it should be for a sedan height, meaning that you'll still need to lower the spindles or run height adjusters.

This kit, plus a new or refurb'd front beam, would be a LOT less $$ than a Mendeola dual A-arm setup.

I'll try to post pictures of the conversion kit tomorrow. It's pretty simple and built like a tank.

gn

Gordon, why does it say St. Louis MO under your name?

There.....how's that?

Nah . . . change it back.