On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, Lozano wrote:
> Hello,
Hi.
> I have been setting up my 6 to autocross.
Ah - a man after my own heart.
:-)
> I read recently about how
> dangerous the Triumph half-shafts are when driving somewhat hard.
Well, that's a stretch. Keep in mind a few things - if you are going to
autocross, the cornering loads are different than raod racing. The speeds
are also lower, so the results of a shed wheel are somewhat less dramatic
than a road racer.
But the real deal here is twofold: 1. we're dealing with 30+ year old
materials that have been through God only knows how many loading cycles
and 2. Unless you are the original owner of your car, you have no idea
what sort of bodges have been donw to your axles stubs. Trust me on this,
some of the repairs out there are just plain ugly.
> My question is. Has anyone completely replaced the rear end in a TR6 (ala
> Hot Rod)?
Sure. Lots of folks have done this. I've seen everything from solid axle
Ford 9" setups to alternates like the Goodparts Nissan setup.
> I have access to multiple RX7 rear ends and have been wondering if the
> change could be done.
Of course it can. It's only a matter of time and money.
> Please no flames about keeping it original. I want the car to be as safe
> as possible for I want to do with it.
Ah - but you left out an extremely important detail... what class do you
want to run in? If you're talking F Prepared, then all this stuff is
doable. Actually, the solid axle setup would put you in EM, but we don't
have to go there. But if you're talking FP, I highly recommend the Corvair
axle setup. I can provide details on that, but you will have to shell out
some $$$ for this. Figure over $1k. BUT you get rock solid outer axles
that are field repairable without specialized tools. This feature is
nearly "priceless" if you ever have to exercise it.
As to the differential itself, the TR6 rear diff. is actually quite
robust. There are gearsets available, although they are pricey. Again,
what you do here is more a function of how you intend to race/drive the
car as opposed to "is it possible". If you stick with a stock TR6 diff, I
highly recommend 4.33 gears or 4.56, but with these you should probably
think about a close ratio gearset. I can elaborate, suffice to say that
1st gear is all but useless with gears under 4.10.
I also highly recommend some sort of limited slip. I've driven Quaife and
Detroit Locker, they both work, but the locker is quite exciting 'till you
get used to it. There is also a Salisbury limited slip available (sourced
from the UK) but it is quite pricey compared to Quaife. Unfortunately,
with any of the above, you are subject to "availability" so don't expect
to let your finger do the walking and then have a new pumpkin ready to
install in a couple of days.
I'm pretty active in the autocross world. If you have more questions, fire
away.
> Thank you
>
> Jorge
regards,
rml
p.s. where are you located? I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to
know most of the TR6 autocrossers out there.
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