How does that front suspension work? Torsion bars fore and aft, solid lower, a-arm uppers? How can it flex without bending something?
I went for a ride in a 900 lb sand buggy with 150 HP VW engine. That was one of the scariest rides I've taken. Really fast & with a driver I didn't know might have been a big part of it but still ,,,,
Yeah I know. Most people have no conception what 600HP means. If they had a ride behind a GENUINE 300HP AT THE REAR WHEELS they would be shitting themselves. Like I said, if you want a 600HP motor lie about it like everybody else.
OT, but we have a 2011 STI Subaru on the lot. I have driven some fast hotrods but that car could cancel your checks faster than you can imagine. Like a lot of hotrods, it is way more than a lot of folks could handle. I think this Sube is half of what you guys are talking, about what many of our hotrods are. I have respect for ANYTHING that is daily driven and 300 horse or more. 600? my ass, for many of these claims. I bet that little bucket was a rocket!
I remember attending a weekly cruise one evening and seeing that little roadster come cruising in the lot...idled by and had a really nice sound. Might have been Americruise in Madison? Hell, I don't remember but I remember the car.
when i was still at Rutters we fixed the guy we built the high dollar cuda for's '09 sti we he got side swiped. he had done a few mods on it before the wreck and it was a awesome handling 300ish hp daily. while it was down he ordered the second biggest/baddest turbo you can "safely" out on the stock engine that will bump that right about to the 450-500 range with some other small mods he was also doing. it was stupid fast at 300ish. anyhow damn near every "hot rodder" that came in laughed at us fixing a subaru. first thing we'd tell them was that when a customer with a $200k build ask you to fix his daily, you fix his daily. second most were told in essense that little car was as much or more of a hot rod that what they drove power wise and would probably spank their ass with ease on the street or at the track. most mearly shat themselves when told a) what the STOCK hp ratings were and b) what it was gonna be with the new turbo set up. oh and that it netted 2-3 times the mpg their hot rod got. most clammed up real quick.... oh and i already kinda wanted one of those cars before his came in the shop and i damn sure wouldn't mind one now hahhaa...ken....
This T-bucket, the 303 Fiat Topolino, the flip top Ardun-powered Crosley and the two BA T-Buckets with slicks from Jersey (Sunquist and Moonquist?) are in my mind what made the early 70's such a great time. There was not a specifed build that you had to follow. Excellent thread!
Thinking back to when I was dealing with the "running hot" issue, I recall talking to a BMW motorcycle mechanic, who suggested using a synthetic oil that they used in their bikes. Don't remember the brand, but I bought and used it,along with the extra air flow blowing down across the cylinders and heads. That combination really helped the engine live a bit cooler. Naturally, the general consensus was to install the factory shrouding, but I really liked the look without the shrouds. The alternator was driven off the front crank with a Lovejoy coupler, that for some reason needed replacement a couple of times. For whatever that's worth. Perhaps some air cooled mechanics can chime in with info. Stu
That's the only way. VW and Porsche transaxles can have a ring gear flip done, and reverse course. Not so with the Corvair, without serious machine work.
the oil was more than likely Fuchs ( fook's) we used to sell it at the dealer I worked at in H.S. expensive stuff , but made mobil one look like used oil . and man a customer ask me what did I say??? when I told them what to grab it off the shelf
Cole Foster just posted on FB that we lost Don Kendall. Very sad. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Anybody who even remotely wanted to try it could grab the Corvair sitting at the roundabout on 171 Highway.
damn, posting a week ago and gone today. goes to show live every day to its fullest as you never know how many you've got left.... RIP Don....
Very sorry to hear about Don Kendalls passing. My condolences to his family. That car is an awesome piece of engineering and a real hallmark of the early 70's t-buckets.-dd Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using H.A.M.B. mobile app
Very sad to hear of his passing. Someone posted that they sold the car to someone in Michigan.I believe I have a pic of that car cruising Woodward Ave about 10 years ago but it didn't have the Corvair engine in it.I took a picture of it because of the bizarre shape of the body.I'll have to dig into my pictures(when I can get out to the shop again;everything is frozen right now). As for the horsepower thing;back around 1970 I was lettering race cars at Autodynamics and Dearborn Auto Co in Marblehead Massachusetts and Alex Dearborn had put together one of his Deserter buggies with a mid engined Corvair that was turbocharged and built by Ted Trevor of Crown Mfg.(Corvair guru)that was dynoed at 375 hp and was only guaranteed to live for 8 hours.It was built for Pikes Peak and the car it was destined for weighed 1180 lbs.ready to run.I rode in this car when it had a 150 hp engine in it and it was a land locked rocket.I couldn't imagine what it would have been like with more than twice the horsepower.Unfortunately the engine blew up on the dyno. I remember it was running a single huge Weber carb with a water/alcohol injection system and a variable waste gate on the turbo.As I recall it had about 35 lbs. of boost maximum.
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