Metalshapes-- "I have the book that is written about this car, thanks to a NZ HAMBer that was nice enough to help me buy one." What is the name of the book and the author? Herb
Ralph Watson Special Engineer. ISBN 0-476-01371-2 My book has a sticker in it with this info: Capital Books 110 Featherston St Wgtn Ph 473 9358 Box 5534 www.capitalbooks.co.nz I really enjoyed reading this book.
Go down to Buttonwillow Raceway, this weekend (May 4th and 5th); to Sonoma Raceway, May 18th and 19th; and to Laguna Seca, August 9th-12th and 16th-19th for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The 24th to the 27th of October, at the new Formula 1 Track near Austin, Texas, may have some interesting vintage cars entered. Stay tuned
C.R.Glow Neon and any others coming to Sonoma and/or Monterey, please stop by the pit with the four California Specials. The Manning and Baldwin run flatheads on alcohol, the Tatum has a Wayne GMC and my Jag is still Jag. I look forward to meeting you!
Terry, We ought to have a H.A.M.B gathering somewhere at Sonoma. As well as C.R. Neon, that canny New Zealander wrench of the Manning and Baldwin, Mike Ryan, is a HAMB'r. Fur Biscuit, the intrepid photog, is one, too.
Ok guys here's mine. Ford anglia based, torque tube rear and three speed 100e sidevalve four with overhead inlet valve conversion. 4.4 rear end. Edwards brothers EB "60" body. Built in 1960 on a 1953 chassis. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
From the thread, The Elegance at Hershey 2013: Interesting Bugatti. Note wheel/tyre combo: Fitch Whitmore Special:
One of these days, I'm gonna get my shit together and finish mine. Thanks for posting the inspirational pics...
Here's a few that I just stumbled upon. http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/ZQZC8AmericanSpecialsHome.html
That's the Cannon Mark IV coupe. Rick Cannon, one of the Cannon Brothers' nephew (I think), is the restorer/current owner of the car. It originally was powered by an Offy 270, lying on it's side. The Offenhauser didn't run well. so they replaced it with a big Lincoln V-8. Putting the Offy on an angle was finally successful when Howard Gilbert built, for George Salih, with 1958 Indy 500 winner: the first laydown Indy Roadster. In the early 50's, the Cannon Mark IV was very fast (it still is). It apparently, for one reason or another, had trouble finishing. Rick told us, after jousting for the lead with Jon Buddenbaum in Terry Buffum's Parkinson Jag at the Monterey Historics, that he "ran out of brakes".
Here's a pretty different version of a "Special". It's a "1935 Austin Seven supercharged race car whose history is unknown", according to Hemmings Motor News. It reminds me of an old streamliner toy I saw once.
Either one of the four 1936 DOHC factory race cars--or more likely, a car built up to look like one. Factory cars were 750cc, 116 HP, 12000 RPM, and one went 121 MPH on it's first outing. Complete car weighed 9 3/4 cwt. Herb
I was at Millers at Milwaukee a couple of weeks back and many of the cars were 'specials' and if they weren't 'Specials' they were just plain special.... Here's the 1932 Hupmobile Comet with straight eight L head. It was fifth in the 1932 Indy 500....
This was recently posted on a thread that was closed: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9209385&postcount=30 The thread as a whole was perhaps too far off-topic for the HAMB's new focus; I don't think this individual post was. By niceperson: the body does not look like much at this stage this is the standard Z grill and it has since been shortened by about 100mm you can see my cut lines near the bottom Man does not live by seven's alone so I have been working on a new project which is sort of a seven circa say 1950 essentially its a 1946 Morris Z chassis (common to the Morris eight) with a light weight body of my own design the only body panel that it has from the original Morris is its grill piece the rest is based upon a square tube frame (sound familiar?) that is bolted around the perimeter of the chassis. At the front I have the standard suspension which is a beam axle on semi elliptic leaf springs that have had three of the six leaves removed at the back I had to improvise because I have been unable to find a set of Morris springs instead I have some modified Suzuki Sierra rear springs, like the front I have removed leaves to soften the ride and to lower the ride height. in the thirties having a pointy tail was considered very racing car like so I used a surplus Morris minor bonnet sectioned and joined to give this nice shape sheet-mental will be added to the sides and the plan is to get as close as I can to running open wheels by making guards out of beaten 3mm aluminium attached to the diff itself . once painted Matt black they should be close to invisible I'm going for light weight agility rather than flat out fire breathing power My initial design called for the use of a Suzuki sierra engine that I happen to have already however I am concerned that Queensland's oppressive rules about modified cars would make the car strictly for off road use. To get around this I am seeking out a suitable period engine. However rather than looking for an original side valve lump and its three speed crash box I am looking for an early A series OHV engine and four speed gearbox. These engines are tough as old boots, compact and very tunable. the point is that back in the day a bloke could have built a car like this and it would have been considered quite sporting. The engine has been moved back by about 400mm for better weight distribution the seats will now be almost where the back seat would have gone so of course its only a two seat car. Anyway now to the topic of today's post which is about the way that I have had to go about ensuring that I have a better diff ratio for our modern times and the fact that the car will be so light compared to the original my brother gave me a Morris minor diff with a very nice 4,22 : 1 ratio which is MUCH better than the 5.1:1 original and it is also substantially more robust and should keep the oil in far more reliably as well. I had hoped that the centre would just nicely drop in to the Z housing, no such luck with the Morris Minor diff being a bit bigger in all dimensions. It was also about 60mm wider. I very much want to retain the original 17 inch skinny wheels and they inconveniently have a 6 x 98mm stud spacing which is just quite different to the Morris Minor 4 x98mm and meant some lateral thinking was needed. The first issue was the extra width. In the first instance I thought that I could just live with the wider track at the back after all its only just over an inch extra on each side and it would ad stability. Then my Brother R suggested that I could do a cut and shut job using the outer ends of the Z diff housing welded to the Minor centre section. Some careful measuring I have concluded that by grafting the Z ends onto the Minor housing I will be able to retain my original wheels and that all I need to do is have the end of the Minor axles re drilled so that they will mate with the Z hubs . To accomplish the plan I made a very simple jig to which I bolted the Minor housing it is all based upon a chunky piece of 75 x75 RHS and a few bits and bobs Examining the drive axles carefully suggested that I could easily narrow the diff by an inch without having to have the splines re-cut by cutting off half an inch of each drive axle at the spline end it would be possible to make the rear axle closer to the original dimensions of the Z diff. Of course the tricky part was making sure that I have the ends aligned properly with the center the jug made sure that they end flanges were square and as the Z ends were about 2.5 mm bigger in diameter so to make sure that it was where it should be. I also had to make sure that I kept the left and right ends on the correct side because the LH side is a left hand thread to ensure that the hub nut can not come undone while driving. By using a square and a thickness gauge I checked the spacing at 120degree intervals and when it was equal tacked the ends to the center again at 120 degree spacing. Once the three tacks were done I knew that the alignment would be good and I could fully weld the ends on. OK I do appreciate that the alignment may be a few thou out but this car will not by any stretch of the imagination be a fire breather so I think it will be OK. Because the rear track is now going to be a tad wider I may just add some spacers to the front hubs to even up the track. Next thing on my list of things to do is to weld on the saddles that locate the diff onto the springs While I'm at it I will add a bracket for the necessary "T" piece for the brake lines and some securing brackets for the lines as well then it will get a coat of paint and that will be a major part of my drive-line ready for action. Vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR8_...D2dazHAY5zwU2Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPc2AtaGfMc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsDh88VwjxY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taI_mAuiHGQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0svJzuCasA
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