The HAMB History post What happened to Ray Brown's 27 Lakes roadster? by Jimmy B had some great images of the car, including a rear 3/4 shot with the turtle deck off that I had n... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I love center steer competition roadsters and this one is no exception. In the cut away drawing i noticed the radiator still being utilized up front with the water neck tubes traveling all the way back to the engine. I wonder if that was to increase the water capacity for cooling? I am not sure if my understanding of the principles are correct so any help there would be cool. This car is definitely all business!!!
That was way over the top thinking for "back in the day".. What a beautiful piece of work! How did it do?
Captain "R", one of my fave cars of the era, cool to see these rare photos! Muchas Gracious!! ~Sololobo~
Ingenius setup! I wish I knew more about setting up for the salt. My mind snapped to the question of unsprung weight right off the bat, but with so many successful cars running no suspension at all, I can't reconcile this in my head. Nice shots to look back in time.
So it would seem and important to note. Still gives a good indication of the design principle and set up of the Brown car though.
Things were so much simpler back then. Many purpose built cars of today are simple,but way more complicated. Dig? Cat
I just read the chapter on Ray's car last night, in the Edelbrock book. Always loved it and now I want to marry it! Thanks for posting this, Jay! Scotty
HA! No wonder I had never seen that pic of Ray Brown's car-- it isn't his!! Thanks for the correction & and the scan, Kevin- The Don Waite 27 is a GOOD LOOKING car!
These rear engined roadsters used an in and out box like sprint cars. They were pushed up to a certain speed and the box engaged. As you say that is Don Waite's drivetrain. Ray Brown's roadster had a solid mounted rear and engine. Ray later converted his roadster to a cradle setup similar to that of Don Waite's. 1948 As you can see above Ray did something other lake roadster builders didn't do, he retained the body subrails. To channel the body Ray simply built the chassis on top the subrails. 1949-50 Below you can see how Ray built his cradle. There are great construction shots of Ray's roadster on the AHRF
two very cool cars for sure, I know if you really break it down there is very little the same between these two examples and Josh's car but it sure makes me think of it http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=3948 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363432 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416353
It is an amazing car, Don raced it for around 10-11 years. It started in '47 with a Crager 4 in front. In 1948 the roadster was converted to a rear engine setup with the same 4-pot Crager. 1949 it was rebuilt again with the Merc in the cradle, channelled and track nose added. Early 50s saw the track nose replaced with what Alex Xydias called a knife nose and the flathead replaced with a hemi by 1953 This pic was posted on the HAMB about 5 years ago of how Don Waite's car looked at the time, restoration was under way, a few members questioned the car as being the original & called it a clone, that offended the owner and nothing else has been posted. 1949 Back to Ray Brown's roadster
Here is a photo of the Hemi that was in the 27 roadster when it had, what Don called the "canoe" nose........... It was removed from the roadster when rear engine modifieds were banned and it found its way into the 29 roadster that he built.
Doesn't mater who's picture it is . Just shows you how they used their heads to figure out how to make something work better ! Both were very smart in the design ! RetroJim
The installation of that hemi is about as sanitary as any I've seen. One of the things I've noticed about the guys back then is that they are as capable of terrific engineering and execution as any one around today. They were able to do thier magic with hacksaws and SAE bolts and without the "advantage" of a plasma cutter and heliarc welders. Their accomplisments were truely amazing. Frank
Cool to see racer brown stuff on here. / also wasn't Don waite 19 or 20 years old when he built his model T? cool guys
Any of the iterations of the two cars - Only the Best Hot Rods of the day were worthy of the Rex Burnett cutaway drawings...Hot Rod Magazine just did not feature these cutaways for anything other than the absolute 'State of the Art'...the cradle ball-joint set-up, and yes considering technology of the time, is genius.