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RE: Southwick -- new projects?

To: "'FOT@autox.team.net'" <FOT@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Southwick -- new projects?
From: "Barr, Scott" <sbarr@mccarty-law.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 08:45:46 -0500
<< Their last question of me was "What kind of project are you guys going to
come
up with next?" and I didn't have an answer. Any ideas? >>

Why, yes!  I'm still looking to solve the GT6 rear outer axle concern.
Short story is that (according to old GT6 racers) the rear axles and hubs on
the rotoflex GT6 have a tendency to break off and roll you up in a ball.
Many of the rotoflex cars have been converted to Corvair axles, 240Z axles
and all sorts of other fixes.  Steve Smith's car is an example of a nicely
done conversion (240Z, right Steve?).

Perhaps there'd be some interest in a replacement axle and hub?  This might
a shorter list of participants, given the small number of rotoflex GT6s
running around racetracks.  On the other hand, PRI promised to get working
on this a year ago.  I haven't heard anything from them.  Maybe they'd be
interested in buying up a few sets and selling them from their site?

Scott Barr
sbarr@mccarty-law.com <mailto:sbarr@mccarty-law.com>
(920) 766-4693
(920) 766-4756 (fax)


-----Original Message-----
From: Jack W. Drews [mailto:vinttr4@geneseo.net]
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 3:10 AM
To: Ronald R Gates
Cc: fot@autox.team.net; vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: aluminum hubs - last call


Ronald R Gates wrote:

> I recieved my Southwich hubs this past week and looked them over and i am
> very satisfied with their work and they look cool ! All of the Southwick
> conversion parts we have put on our car have worked and  are very well
made
> . The biggest thing is everything  on the car was changed for safety
> reasons and the performance part was just a bonus ! and do not forget the
> prices are very reasonable .
>
>  Pete

Thanks for the feedback. One of the best things that came out of my car
wreck
was becoming friends with these Southwick guys. Every visit to their shop is
fun. They're car-and motorcycle- nuts. Bob Southwick just bought a Dodge
V-10
engine at an auction and is busy inserting it in his little Dakota pickup
just
because it's a fun thing to do. His chief machinist just made some parts for
a
1910 motorcycle engine, of which there is only one known example. Once when
I
was there they had a humongous rollcage ready to install -- on the OUTSIDE
of a
4WD truck used for rock-climbing. A couple of weeks ago they had a John
Deere
combine all disassembled and cut up -- they contracted to make one of those
operating cutaways you see at shows with all the innards chrome plated. They
also were the prime contractor for a new agricultural equipment exhibit at
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

My own latest personal adventure with them was -- I had one week in which to
rebuild my engine after a disaster. The piston rings I purchased were in
inch
measurements and I found that the piston ring grooves were metric, so the
rings
wouldn't go in because of the .001 to .0015 interference. I took the rings
to
them and asked if they could machine them down by a thou. They laughed and
said
they'd never heard of that, but "why not?" They made soe quick tooling and
had
at it. I arrived at their shop at 3:00 that afternoon and by 4:30 they had
ground the top two rings down by .0015 apiece. They work like a charm.

Their last question of me was "What kind of project are you guys going to
come
up with next?" and I didn't have an answer. Any ideas?


--

uncle jack and New Blue

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