Re: the Navarro Six

[farna@xxxxxxx]

Plan the interview. I wouldn't make it TO planned, but have a list of questions you specifically want answered. Try to make it more like a friendly conversation instead of going down the list. That puts the "interviewee" more at ease and makes the whole thing more comfortable. It's fine to take a few notes while you're talking. That actually makes a person feel that you value what they are saying. Don't write everything, might make them nervous or self concious, but to jot something down real quick on occasion, and even ask to repeat some special tid-bit now and then, let's them know you value the info they are giving and will nudge them to think deeper and clearer, and qualify things -- "I seem to recall" instead of "this is what it is/was". We all know memory is fallable, and I have interviewed people about things that happened long ago. Some insist on dates I know are wrong ("my 67 SC/Rambler was the fastest ting on the street back then"). If that happens, don't say anyth!
 ing or ask if they are sure about the date! Just politely nod and go on, make a note to check date, then correct it in the written part -- just make darn sure your "correction" is correct!! Make sure you check your questions off as they are answered. The main reason you want a short list of questions is to make sure you don't leave without the answers you REALLY wanted to begin with! I hate when that happens!! 

If/when you get the interviews, I'd sure like to know!! 

Now you need to buy a 64-65 American four door or wagon. A Sportabout might even be better. Would be a killer sleeper! Change the mechanical fuel injection to EFI though. That will pull you down to the 2-2.5 hp per inch I'd think. The mechanical FI would be difficult to control at low speeds and likely ran pretty rich, at least at low to medium speeds. It may even smoke at idle, and idle is likely to be 1000-1500 rpm. Mech FI of that vintage is good for racing only. The Rochester unit used on Corvettes was finicky. I knew a guy with a 57 Pontiac convertible with factory FI. He only drove it in the summer even though the car was in South Carolina. The problem was tuning the FI -- it didn't run worth a crap in cold weather, and if you set it up so it did you had to do a complete retuning once it got warm again. He said that was a lengthy process that required tearing it half apart, just wasn't worth it! I personally don't know a thing about Rochester FI, just what I've been to!
 ld/heard.

On July 15, 2005 Tom Jennings wrote:

> Well I retreived the rest of my junk today, and talked to Gary
> Schaedler, a machinist who worked for Barney then, and did welding
> and fab on this motor and the car. I may interview him later (he
> assented), maybe I could wangle a talk with Barney hisseff. I
> should talk to some journalist type for hints 'aforehand.
> 
> What I have is motor #1, motor #2 is the indy motor. #1 sustained
> some damage on the test track (the damage looks like 30,000 wear
> to me, but at 3.5 hp/cuin any wear could be fatal) and it got set
> aside. There is a #3, or parts thereof, that Barney has so far
> kept.
> 
> These were the only Rambler motors Navarro ever made according to
> Gary.
> 
> It couldn't be a better arrangement. Except for connecting rods --
> and I may be able to get those from their current owner -- I have
> a complete monster motor kit with terrifying historic overtones.
> 
> I don't precisely know what to do with it, to be honest. Massive
> HP isn't my game, but maybe I could make an exception. Clearly I'm
> not going to even blink even in the direction of the exalted
> numbers Navarro got -- 3.5 hp/ci!, but it would seem that with
> this massive O-ringed, 7000rpm block I could slop out less than
> half that with little effort.
> 
> I did a whole new set of photos, in daylight, of some of the major
> components, and pulled numbers from what I could find.  I'll do
> measurements etc as I go. There's a bunch of text on the new page
> also, including the partial story of this motor from Schaedler.
> 
> 
> http://wps.com/AMC/Navarro-turbo-motor/index.html


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