okay guys, i keep hearing the old timers at the track talking about the days of straight axle bel-airs or novas or what ever the guys' rides are. what are these things? there was one at the track but it had the hood closed and a chain around it in the pits, looked real vintage.

what does a straight axle car mean? im assuming there is no front suspension, or something like that. what i cant imagine is how to turn a car with just a straight axle in the front.

too young to know, but not too young to care.
thanks guys.

Okay, I'm no expert on this subject, but I do know the basics. A straight axle car generally uses leaf springs up front. They are very much old school, the theory if I learned it right was to get the front end as high as possible for better traction on the strip. This is all old tech and has been proven false, but there are still a few nostlaga guys running the out there.

what does a straight axle car mean? im assuming there is no front suspension, or something like that. what i cant imagine is how to turn a car with just a straight axle in the front.
The "straight axle" car would use the front axle from a truck or other "straight axle vehicle". Even in the 60's, many trucks still had straight axles, but I think most production cars were going toward independant front suspensions.

There are still spindles attached to each end, so the car can turn, but between the spindles, its a solid axle.

Lets look at the Chevelle for example, it has upper and lower control arms, making it have "independant front suspension". These parts would be removed and replaced with the "straight axle" from another vehicle and usually used leaf springs. I think the setup might have also been lighter, but as Bryan stated, one of the ideas was to get the front end higher than the rear, in an effort to aid weight transfer and traction...