Brian,
There's a Ford V8 powered Spit for sale on the VTR classifieds right now,
and he took your approach-a narrowed ford diff.
I think the Quaife is a valid question-is it strong enough?
Can Mark B. or another noted racer answer?
Thanks
Ray
At 11:02 AM 11/18/98 -0600, Smith, Brian wrote:
>Being a "reformed" hot rodder, I would try a shortened american rear end. A
>ford 9 inch comes to mind, or perhaps, being from a smaller car, a chevette
>(yech) rear. I think you could probably do without the IRS and mount the
>soild axle to the transverse spring "the way it is". probably would
>compramice handleing a little but....who knows?
>
>Brian H. Smith
>1959 TR3
>1972 Spitfire IV
>1977 TR7
>Lake Charles, LA
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Lindberg, Andrew (MN12)
>[SMTP:Andrew.Lindberg@Corp.Honeywell.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 1998 10:45 AM
>> To: brian_s@deq.state.la.us; DANMAS@aol.com; Spitfires@Autox.Team.Net
>> Subject: Re: Your Spitfire!!!!
>>
>> In a message dated 98-11-17 13:22:28 EST, brian_s@deq.state.la.us writes:
>>
>> > How a boutthat...and me having a freind that just took possesion of two
>> > rover V-8's. HMMMM, talk about great in a straight line but not worth
>> a
>> > sh*t in a corner.
>>
>> From: DANMAS@aol.com
>> Nay, nay, my friend, it doesn't have to be so! A rover V8 weighs a LOT
>> less
>> than the 6 cylinder used in the GT6 (about 75 pounds), and how bad do they
>> handle? Not bad at all, I would suspect. If done right, a Rover/Spit
>> should
>> handle quite well indeed!
>>
>> FWIW, Peter Cook did a little book on Spitfires and GT6s a few years back.
>> In it, in the GT6 chapter, he devotes about one paragraph to a Rover-V8
>> equipped GT6 that some of the Triumph engineers threw together. The V8
>> was,
>> as Dan says, lighter that the six and no suspension changes were required.
>> It went like stink and didn't have any handling problems.
>>
>> I've always been intrigued by this conversion and talked to Don Schumacher
>> about it last summer at the VTR convention. Don owns a fair number of the
>> aluminum V8s and he said that the six to V8 conversion was relatively easy
>> in a GT6. He then went on to say, however, that it'd tear up the
>> differential in a few weeks. He recommended converting the diff to a
>> Datsun
>> 510 unit, along with associated supension pieces and subframe. This, of
>> course, costs some real money. I believe he said that they had run such a
>> car in some type of race and done quite well. Does anybody have any info
>> on
>> this? Thinking about it now, I can't imagine what it would be eligible
>> for.
>> Others said that an easier (but still not cheap) way to fix the diff
>> inadequacy is with a Qaife (sp?) unit.
>>
>> Still on my list of things to do.
>>
>> -- Andy Lindberg (GT6 in Minnesota)
>
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