#AUSTIN MINI METRO DRIVER#

Consequently, the adhesion between all four wheels is constantly in balance and therefore road-holding is good. Compare finance and leasing deals on new Austin Minis to suit your budget. This arrangement is analogous to that of a three-legged stool, which has the advantage that all the legs are at all times firmly planted on the ground regardless of whether it is horizontal, flat, or uneven.

On the other hand, since there is no front-rear interconnection, the front springs have to be charged individually - they are not laterally interconnected.īecause the front springs act independently and an anti-roll bar is installed there too, all tendency to roll is reacted at the front, while the rear end, on its interconnected rear suspension, is allowed to float freely so far as roll is concerned.

These springs are interconnected laterally so a single charging connection is provided. The front-rear attitude of the vehicle is set by charging the rear springs appropriately with fluid. This restricts the range of operation of the gas spring to the top part of its load-deflection curve, where the slope of that curve steepens. To reduce the suspension deflection from the unladen to fully laden condition, the gas springs at the rear are pre-loaded by coil springs coaxial with the push-rods. 42.34 Austin Metro suspensionĪre installed horizontally within the confines of a U-shaped sub-frame. This avoids the need for separate shock absorbers and consequent vertical intrusion into the load space above. The rear Hydragas springs, on the other hand, are internally damped, as described in Section 42.22. To provide adequate damping control, therefore, between the structure of the vehicle and both the front suspension and the engine, telescopic hydraulic dampers are installed, and there are no damping valves in the front Hydragas units.

#AUSTIN MINI METRO DRIVER#

With only the driver in the car, a high proportion of the total load is that of the engine and suspension assembly on the front sub-frame. As in the Mini, a twin unequal-length traverse link system is used at the front, and a trailing link actuates each rear gas spring through a push rod, the leverage ratio being 5 : 1. By then the model had become famous for competition performance and had won the Monte Carlo Rally several times. Further developments of Cooper S followed until 1971 when the 1,275cc Cooper S was discontinued. This avoids both a high frequency of pitching when lightly laden and a tail-down attitude with a heavy load of luggage at the back. The Austin Mini Cooper S was developed at the same time and was launched in 1963. All four wheels have gas springs but, because of the short wheelbase and potentially large variations in front-rear weight distribution, the front and rear springs are not interconnected.

Austin mini metro