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For decades, the four-link style rear suspension system has been to the ultimate configuration for hardcore drag racing applications, providing the utmost in performance, safety, and adjustability. While the premise has remained largely the same, famed chassis builders to average Joe’s with some tubing and a welder have tried every little trick in the book and many that aren’t to find a better way to build the age-old four-link. Some of those concepts have worked, and many have not.
One of those ideas that has worked is the X-Link locator, an advancement of the common wishbone that so many race cars out there utilize that R2B2 Race Cars foreman Jim Geese developed and sells under the Roger Burgess led brand entity today.
Wishbone cars still have some play in the rear suspension, but the X-Link spreads the load to all four corners equally with equal pressures at each point. – Jim Geese
“Believe it or not, I actually drew up the concept for the X-Link on a napkin back in 1995,” says Geese. “Wishbone cars still have some play in the rear suspension, but the X-Link spreads the load to all four corners equally with equal pressures at each point. Anybody that’s driven a wishbone car and then driven one of our cars with the X-Link has told us that it feels so much better.”
The X-Link, like the wishbone, works to keep the rear end housing from playing side to side, by acting as a brace from the rear end housing to the chassis. At the center of this unique locator is a slip-fit tube that allows it to work up and down as the suspension travels without binding things up. With the X-Link installed, there’s just 3/8-inch movement in the rear suspension from when its on the ground to when its placed on the lift.
“The X-Link makes the rear suspension work a lot more like a motorcycle or a dirtbike, where the suspension travels up and down as its intended, but not side to side,” adds Geese.
The X-Link is utilized on R2B2 Racing’s Pro Modified entries and similar cars that have rolled out of their Georgia shop, and it can also be had on any of their chassis offerings that range from lightweight Pro Extreme cars to Top Sportsman and bracket doorslammers. For more information, log on to r2b2racecars.com.
