| sturgis 39 | -- 02-11-2010 @ 11:06 PM |
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i thought a suicide front end was when the tie rod was in front of the axle. looking on ebay they call everything a suicide front end. WHAT WAS THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF SUICIDE FRONT END? THANKS STURGIS 39
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| 42wagon | -- 02-12-2010 @ 3:16 AM |
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It is my understanding that originally it referred to the front doors on the 33s and 34s that were hinged on the center door post and if opened while the car was in motion would swing back allowing the front seat passenger to fall out. IE suicide front doors. No doubt the hot rodders who heavily modify cars have given it a new meaning referring to other car parts. Ted
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| Stroker | -- 02-12-2010 @ 5:34 AM |
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In early dirt track, drag and dry lakes racers, the front spring perch was often designed as a simple mounting plate attached in front of a tubular front cross member. This allowed the frame to be much lower without resorting to a modified "dropped" axle. The conservative perception was that the failure of this attachment point would allow the sprung portion of the chassis to drop to the ground between the radius rods (which were usually split, and attached to the frame rails), thereby allowing the nose of the car to dig in and cause the car to vault end over end. In practice, due to careful, well gusseted construction, this was not a common occurrence. Practically all "T-Bucket" style hot rods also used this front spring mounting concept.
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| 40fordor | -- 02-12-2010 @ 8:16 AM |
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In my area the term SUICIDE FRONT END on street driven cars indicated that the front bumper had been removed and it would be suicide for the car in parking or an accident.
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| wmsteed | -- 02-12-2010 @ 10:28 AM |
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Actually the term "suicide front end" originated with the early attempts to modify the front end suspension by splitting the wishbones to the frame rails and relocating the axle, utilizing many different home brewed, and somewhat flimsy appearing mounting systems. The term "suicide doors" originated with the front opening doors on the '32-33 Ford coupes/sedans. Several other manufactures used this system on the front doors, a few of which were GM, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, etc. The term "suicide doors" to describe the doors on a four door that open to the front is a recent use of the term. Actually, the seat sits so far to the rear of the door on most sedans, it is nearly impossible to fall out if the rear door should fly open on a turn/curve. The term.."screaming eight" that was a common term used to describe the early Ford V8's, has faded into history. The scream was created by the fan on the high rev'ing flatheads....Of course most of the early street rodders removed the fans to save a few horse's. I wonder? Did the German Stuka dive bombers of WWII copy the Fords scream to put fear into their opponents? Bill 36 5 win delx cpe
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