Mike,
"Terrible" is in the eye of the beholder...or pants of the driver as the case may be. Certainly, there are many, many guys who don't mind the leaf spring chassis and it's bouncing down the road. The car is quite stiffly sprung just for the very reasons What'saCobra mentioned.
The leaf spring by its very nature is not very rigid in the foward and backwards plane. As a spring it tends to want to do funny things. But, you also have to remember, we are looking at this through 2005 eyes and not through 1965 eyes. Many things that were perfectly "normal" are completely unacceptable today in the car world.
There is NO DOUBT the car handled exceptionally well as evidenced by the many, many victories the leaf spring car racked up over time. But nice to drive on the track and nice to drive on the street are two very different things. I have heard many times that the 289 FIA car was fast in spite of itself. As I said, the cars are quite stiffly sprung and I am reminded of Mr. Chapman's famous saying, "Any suspension will work...if you don't let it!"
Shelby thought the 427 coil-sprung suspension was better because they used it on the later (427) cars. I imagine they could have used a leaf spring as Corvette did for years--but they didn't.
David
