Originally Posted by
MugenWrecker
Hate to be the pedantic one but I think the AMPS Rapier was the first commercially available suspension car of the shall we call it modern era. Must have been about 79-81 period.
The PB became available commercially in early to mid 1981. The Associated prototypes started to appear around this time as well although Rick of course would have a better knowledge of this than me.
The Serpent suspension car became available in early 1982 and featured such novel features as no shockabsorbers apparently the friction on the pins would be adequate ! ? Not long after shockabsorbers became available, as an option of course.
No problem the AMPS car was something we never saw much of in the states (actually not sure if I ever saw one in person) so it didn't come up in my memory, think also there was an early Italian car maybe Mantua that I have no data on. The Associated prototypes also had no shocks originally but at Ratteys with all the bumps they were necessary so I bought a set of PB shocks from the importer (Larry ?? out of Pennsylvania) and sat in the motel room and got them adapted.
Since we've again hijacked the thread away from posters hiding behind screen names arguing about geopolitical issues one of the racers from Detroit Jack Jacobs ran a suspension car at the first worlds in Pomona - 1977.