Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
I think it is the 90's era Corvette that used fibre glass leaf springs. Weight was considerably less than steel. May be a viable option for you provided a live axle design is possible, or is you can design an independent design around the leaf spring design. Older motorcycles had them on the front, BMW comes to mind right away, but there were others.
Or if you can find some Moulton rubber cone springs. These are used on Moulton bicycles and are a smaller version of the ones used on the Austin Mini. Very compact and light. I think the bicycle ones are self-damping (the cars have conventional telescopic shock absorbers).