kod99, a hardtail car has no suspension of any kind. A slipjoint car has no shocks but does have a suspension of sorts, there are different ways of achieving a slip joint. Our slip car has uprights on both sides in front of the footbox that has a pipe coming down from the top rail into a larger diameter pipe on the bottom rail allowing the chassis to bow. Not many uprights on our car so you have to stay on top of chassis maintenance. There are single, double and triple slip cars, where the slip joints are in different places, ours is just how Victory chassis did it. You can have a hardtail that has front suspension, David Lanning AKA- Hammertime on here has that on his car.
A fourlink car has a rear suspension just like a fourlink door car with a wishbone and drive shaft. Some people claim that a fourlink is not as good as a swimgarm car because fast cars can be upset going on and off the stop or when whipping the throttle at the big end because of roll rotation.
A swingarm car has the bottom bars tied together and pivots like the swingarm of a motorcyle except that the heim ends allow it to roll rotate more but not as much as a fourlink. It's possible maybe someone has some pics of the rearend of a foulink and swingarm car they can post up for comparison. David???
Suspended cars are definitely smoother to drive and are better on rough tracks and bad shutdown areas. I don't believe they are more consistent than our car on the tracks we race on and we have data to prove it, although the resale on them is better. You would have to make the judgment call on your racing surface. I can say our slipjoint car hits like a truck ran into you when it takes off compared to a suspended car, it's a blast. I hope this helps some.
Curtis Reed