The ERA Optional Rear Suspension

Our rear suspension unit is probably the most sophisticated rear suspension available in any kit car!  From the aluminum subframe and hub carriers to the 11.75" outboard brakes, this design offers many advantages over our Jag-derived design - or for that matter, any production-based suspension.  It offers better control at race speeds and large vented rotors that are in the air-stream.  And - it even saves about 50 lbs over our Jag-based design..

Like our standard setup, the rear suspension is mounted in a subframe, but in aluminum rather than steel.  The subframe is mounted to the chassis at the top and front through urethane bushings, isolating noise and vibration away from you, but maintaining exact suspension geometry. Every unit that we build has a rebuilt or new Powerlok© LSD too.

The unit is designed to be fully adjustable - very tunable for the track, although it isn't of much advantage on a street car.  

In our standard Jaguar based suspension,  there was one problem: the Jaguar inboard brakes sometimes overheated under track conditions. (We did offer some optional brakes to cure the problem, but they were pretty pricy.) The outboard brake layout cures that problem - standard.  Calipers are from the late model Corvette, and have an integral emergency brake if desired.  Light, efficient, reasonably cheap - and built for a car that weighs 30% more than the 427SC.  The vented rotors are 11.75" Wilwood units, .810" thick.

ERA can also supply a sophisticated leveraged emergency-brake linkage that actually works!.

We were able to get exactly the geometry we wanted, using the axle as the upper link, so why have the added complication, weight and expense of a variable-length axle?  The axial stress in the shaft is small compared to the torsional stress, and the fail-safe-design axle shafts have proven extremely reliable under all conditions.  We've lowered the roll center and decreased the camber change a bit from the Jag for more predictable handling under track conditions.  There is also more anti-squat built into the geometry. The optional anti-sway bar has a (sliding) adjustable link for the anti-sway bar so that you can do some micro-tweeking of the front and rear balance at the track.

We cast our own aluminum hub carriers for this rear suspension, but it still uses the same Jaguar stub axles, bearings and seals.  All of the pieces are reasonably priced and well proven in our 427SC.

The hub carrier is located firmly in every direction,.  At the bottom toe and camber is controlled by two radius arms with adjustable nylon-lined rod ends at the inside and urethane bushings at the hub carrier, plus a trailing arm with the same combination of rod end and urethane bushing.  At the top, there's a trailing arm with rod ends at both ends, plus the drive axle acting as a radius rod.  The subframe is CNC punched aluminum.  The tubular radius arms allow easy toe-in adjustment.