The Forgotten On

I just picked up a second edition of Porsche Originale, their Porsche classic news and products book (free from any dealer BTW).

They put any part they are reintroducing via Porsche classic for all of their cars from the 356 up to the Carrera GT along with bits of history and stories from their history.

One of the first things you see when you open it up is an excerpt about the Weissach axle.

It actually stands for Winkel Elnstellende SelbstStabilisierende AusgleichsCHarakteristik.

It roughly translates to toe-in self-stabilizing balancing characteristics.

I never actually knew this and thought a few of you would like to know as well.

hacker-pschorr

I wonder how many points that's worth in Scrabble.

PorKen

(From an early dealer brochure, Technical Data insert)

Unitized Construction, Front Suspension...................Independent, double A-arms with coil springs, negative steering roll radius
Rear suspension...................................................Independent »Weissach«* axle with self-stabilizing toe characteristic



*Working Elasticities Integrated for a Systematic Stablizing Alignment Change

FredR

From Wikipedia:

Weissach is a municipality in the district of Böblingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
The Weissach axle is named after the town, where the research centre of Porsche is located. The Porsche 918 Spyder supercar was developed in Weissach;

Adk46

Having pondered the handling of my recently-acquired classic 911, I've concluded that the lift-throttle oversteer is not so much from the rear engine as from its rear suspension: its geometry changes with fore-and-aft thrust. Exacerbated by rear weight bias at the limits, sure, but not the direct reason the outside rear wheel clearly steers as you work the throttle, even at moderate speeds.

The driver may consider this alarming, fun or dangerous as he or she wishes. I await the inevitable deer around a sharp corner before deciding for myself.

The Weissach axle was Porsche's atonement for this peculiarity and/or shortcoming, going to considerable trouble to reverse the direction of this steering.



http://jenniskens.livedsl.nl/Technical/WeissachSusp.htm

Alan

Interesting that they came up with a neat acronym attribution (someone worked hard at that!) - however its clear the name really comes from the place it was developed:

Here is Weissach: <<




Alan