This is a very old independent suspension, used by some sports cars since the 50s, such as VW Beetle, Porsche 356 Mercedes' 300SL Gull wing and triumph Spitfire/GT6. However, it disappeared because it has so many weaknesses.
The only advantage is - it provides independent shock absorption.
Handling is really awful, as camber angle can be noticeably changed by bouncing motion (as shown in the first picture), change of static weight of the car (second picture) and body roll (third picture). Especially is the body roll, which makes both wheels lean towards the corner, thus result in severe oversteer. This explains why the beautiful Mercedes 300SL Gull wing was criticized as very unpredictable and difficult to handle.
Camber variation can be reduced via using longer swing arms, but this could create problems in packaging. It engages the space for rear seats and even the boot. The oddball Mr. Grenfall inventor of British oddities developed a swing arm rear end with each swing arm pivoting from a point on the opposite chassis side. Whilst this minimized some of the swing arms handling traits, it was incredibly heavy with each arm more than twice the length of a normal on and separate drive shafts still had to be provided
Another solution is to introduce
inherent understeer by setting the wheels negatively cambered. This could
compensate the oversteer during cornering but the drawback is the
instability in straight line. To cars as slow as VW Beetle, a swing axle shows
its advantage in ride comfort over contemporary non-independent suspensions
while the weakness in handling is not too easily seen. For the Porsche 356, at least
in the less-powerful early versions, the problem is not severe, In
later years, when the car got bigger and bigger engines, Porsche realised
that the days of the swing axle were over. The
911 launched in 1963, used trailing arms at the rear instead of a swing
axle.