hawkeracing

Well...there I was telling you all I'd bought a Rapid (the red one with the bodykit in the for sale section) when my deposit cheque lands back at mine with a note saying he sold it to someone else (despite having agreed a sale with me)..........no point in saying anymore really!
I am now looking around for other things and wondered about the suspension on the 120 L5. Is it a semi trailing arm set up like the Rapid or is it the notorious swing arm (I'm thinking of a late 1980s model)????

Tailhappy

I drove both types of car. To be honest, in everyday - and even spirited driving - I could not tell the difference.

HOWEVER...

I was told that the swing arm suspension can catch you out if you are taking a very fast radius bend under power and then lift off. I have never tried such tomfoolery, but there must be some truth in the fact that the semi-trailing type as fitted to the 130 saloons and the Rapid range was more a more safe setup for hard driving.

Ian

daverapid

The 120L5 has swing axle suspension.

At normal driving speeds there is virtually no difference in the handling. However, when pushed the semi-tailing arm handling is certainly more user friendly. Both types can catch out the less careful driver, certainly in the wet. With semi-trailing arms the initial understeer turns into oversteer less sharply.

Saying that, during my teenage years of Skoda driving [I'm 36 now] I managed to uncarefully place my Skoda [semi-trailing arm] in the ditch twice!

Best not to lift off mid corner with either type until you're used to rear engined handling....slow in, fast out is safest.

Once you've gained some experience it's actually rather fun to pactice steering your car on a twisty road by using mainly the throttle, not the steering wheel. Lift off to tighten the line, accelerate to straighten up. Try it on an empty roundabout and you'll see what I mean.

__________________

David McKinney
TREASURER OF SKODA OWNERS CLUB GREAT BRITAIN
www.skoda-owners-club.org.uk

hawkeracing

I know the feeling...when I was 18, I put my 130 Rapid into the same ditch twice in a week (backwards....rescued by my brother 1st time and by a milk tanker 2nd time)! I thought the 120L5 would have had the semi trailing arm by the late 1980s...hey ho! I dont actually know the difference in all honesty, Ive just heard the stories....and if I could put a 130 in a ditch the thought of a 120 is scarier!

KenONeill

As already noted, the semi-trailing rear was only on the 130. This wasn't just a case of cheapness; the works could only make so many sets of semi-arms a month, and that roughly matched the number of 130s made.

As to why the swing axle is dodgier handling, basically it's because it causes more camber change when asked to go from full bump to full droop, for the same distance moved at the wheel.