.......Every car has an "anti squat line". This line extends from the center of gravity, down to the front of the contact patch of the rear tire. If the suspension pickup point, is below the anti-squat line, the car seperates in the rear on launch. If the pickup point is above the anti-squat line, the car squats on launch. If the the pickup point is on the line, the car does neither. Some suspension guys, theorize the IC ON the anti-squat is ideal for any application, because this is where the car has the least wasted movement and applies the most power, but my own testing does not seem to support that...........Basically, a ladder bar, is like a leaf spring, but the advantage is the ladder bar will not give, plus it moves the IC forward because of bar length. This applies force to the chassis further forward, creating better leverage and increased weight transfer.
If you could make your front spring segment dead stiff and move the mounting point out even with the ladder bar, it would be as good as a ladder bar. All this is why link suspensions, be it a 3 or 4 link, is far superior. You can place the IC where it NEEDS to be, (which, may be RIGHT ON the anti-squat line??? )to properly apply the force to the chassis, to get the results you desire........
Oh, one more thing, if you followed this at all and learned anything about how suspensions work, you can also see why good SHOCKS are critical for a good working car. The whole exercise is about "controlling the housing and applying force". You can have the trickest suspension in the world, but junk shocks render it useless.
Monte
Yeah, shocks are to keep the car from seperating or squatting IF the IC isn't on the anti-squat line?????......... .......just food for thought.......
Hey Monte, in your spare time, it'd be very interesting to test a 4 link car like this.......Put the IC on the anti-squat line, make three passes...........then take OFF the shocks and make three more passes and see what it does.........Those that claim that the IC needs to be on the anti-squat line also say that shocks don't do anything and aren't even needed on the rear because the body of the car is neither seperating or squatting.......(if the track is flat, but that's another story)..........
)to properly apply the force to the chassis, to get the results you desire........
.......just food for thought....... 
