Re: [AMC-List] rambler hot rod // backwards six

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 5 Oct 2006, farna@xxxxxxx wrote:

> You can see how long the Halibrand setup is in the second photo though. A short 4x4 trans with Jag/'vette IRS would be about the same length. That type Halibrand setup HAS NO SUSPENSION!! Wouldn't work well on the street. It's not really a transaxle, but a differential linked directly to the transmission with a slip coupling. The only way to make that work on the street would be to put the engine/trans/diff on a swinging subframe and spring that, like some go-carts do with chain drive. The C5 'vette setup can't be bolted directly to a bell housing, so it's out of the question for a mid engine. Best setup for a mid engine is the Toro/Eldo/Riv axle. Just make the adapter! Those were used in Corvairs with 455s and such in the middle of the car, there may be an adapter for an SBC also. Not that it would help with an AMC engine.

I didn't take photos (doh!), and cannot recall, what the exact
setup was on the #50 car, but it's hard to believe a 200mph
Indy car did not have rear suspension. I have a vague memory
of U-jointed swing axles and inboard brakes. Sure, for a drag
car like the photos I included for general comparison, I can
see no rear suspension.



I've come to my senses (sic) and have abandoned mid-engine ideas.
I've more or less returned to a basic hot rod design, as follows:

The Navarro motor -- vastly detuned -- in the front of the car,
some 3-speed trans with OD, stock AMC rear.  Hot rod kit frame or
equiv. Beam axle or TBD. 104" wheelbase or so. Track-roadsterish
body. No doors no top. Body TBD.

32 Ford-type frames are pretty twisty, I don't understand how
people put 500HP in those things and drive them for real. It's
just a pair of tin 2x4's!

This would make the motor somewhat of a joke to some, but
consider -- it was a hairy mechanical injected (or worse, carbed)
monster as designed, and I'm not Barney freakin' Navarro motor
god. I don't have the custom conn rods and possibly not even the
right pistons (it is sleeved to non-stock dimensions). I won't
be running Hilborn injection! I couldn't afford a chassis that
would safely take 500hp, nor could I afford the driveline
guts, tires, etc to go with it. A driveable 6-cyl putt-putt
hotrod would be very fun to drive, the motor would be seen and
not ruined, and so light as to be damn fast. And I could run
skinny tall tires on an old style open-wheeled car like I've
wanted for a long time.  Most importantly it's a project I
could actually complete.

I could even put one of the special no-part-number heads
and the turbo gunk on a stock Rambler six and save myself
a lot of trouble, run just 8 - 10 lbs max and not worry
about it. Externally the Navarro motor is just about stock
(drilled/plugged all over for oiling mods).



(PS: I made another inquiry to a friend who has contacted the
Navarro family before, to see if I could interview him re: the
Indy project. Didn't hear back the first time, no word yet on
the 2nd.)

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