The Donkervoort uses multi-link suspension at the rear. Does anyone have clear pictures of this, and know what to think about when designing it?

The Donkervoort is well known for it's excellent road holding, so the multi-link must be good.......

Looks rather complicated....











Ray

Multi-link means exactly what it says, an IRS with multiple locating links. The one pictured has two lateral locating links, and the longitudinal link that doubles as three; two longitudinal locators and I assume toe control. In a "standard" IRS this would be accomplished with two true A-arms and a toe control link (five control links to control five degrees of freedom). Naturally all set ups have their pros and cons, its just a matter of finding the best wheel control geometry and the best way to feed it into the chassis for your application. Happy building!!

Probably the best choices for a home built car are:-

Double wishbone, two A arms and a toe control link, at each corner.

Double wishbone at the front, Deon at the rear with a Satchel link or central A arm and two trailing links.

Double wishbone at the front, Trailing arm with two lateral links at the rear (as in the last picture in the above post)

Double wishbone at the front and Struts at the rear.

just for info regarding roll centres:-

Standard Caterham Deon
front 60mm
rear 120mm

Experimental Indy Caterham
front 30mm
rear 65mm

Elise
front 30mm
rear 75mm

The last two, representing the latest from Lotus and Caterham, have to be a big clue to us home builders of small light weight cars.