RGS Atalanta Cars

A 1950's Racing Legend

All Pre and Post-War Atalantas had independant front and rear suspension, giving unique road-holding.

The key points to note with RGS Atalantas are the types of front and rear suspension components, as in the photo above. These were often mounted on the purchaser's own, or other, chassis.

The front suspension had two pairs of trailing arms from which the wheel mounts hung. Initially these trailing arms were fabricated from tubes but later Dick Shattock had castings made. The centre of the leading plates holding the trailing arms was attached to a five-leaved torsion bar acting as the “spring”. Vertical coil springs were used in most pre-war Atalantas and in the first RGS Atalanta, MMX 343.

The rear suspension consisted of an alloy suspension arm which actuated a rod down the centre of, and compressing, a large suspension spring running parallel with the inside of the chassis. Dick Shattock always claimed that it was these finely tuned suspension units which gave Atalantas such good road holding, especially in the wet and especially with the (then) new Michelin radial ply tyres, enabling him to equal or beat “works” cars in some events, most notably the "works"Jaguars, "works" Aston Martins and HWMs at the British Empire Trophy Race at Oulton Park on April 2, 1955.