"Chris Hornbeck" wrote in message

In US automotive parlance, a track rod or a track bar, is a
specific kind of link between a solid rear axle and the body. It
runs parallel to the rear axle.

Either I haven't seen one of those or it's what I would know as an
anti-roll bar.

yup, or stabilizer.

I think an anti-roll bar connects two wheels with a spring which
is pivoted against the chassis, with the intent to minimize their
relative-to-the-chassis differential motion.

Actually, it minimizes the independent up-and-down action of the wheels at
that end of the vehicle. In order for the vehicle to roll, one side has to
go up, and the other side has to go down. This bar minimizes this by
resisting indepenent motion in the up-and-down direction.

Track rods are relatively primitive linkages to keep live axles in
the same county as the rest of the car.

They accomplish that, but this is not their main purpose.

We've all seen them, but
they're so obvious they're easy to ignore.

Through a non-obvious set of kinematics, track rods are used to control the
roll center at that end of the car. The roll center is the middle of the
track bar, so the location of the exact attachement points is critical.

BTW, right after grad school I spent about 3 years in Chrysler's advanced
chassis analysis department. Then the company almost completely folded.,
hopefully no fault of mine! ;-)