Subuie in a Corvair convertible?

[wrw166]

I put a 327 corvette motor in a '66 corvair some years ago for ice racing. It was heavy and the tranny broke alot. But the car wasn't bad.

 

A flat six 5-speed with low center of gravity and light weight would be better.

The car could be lightened up instead of being made heavier. Radiator was easy to install (used Ford GT40 style hood ducts)

 

Last summer i met a guy from indiana who has a couple of Yenko Stingers. He said there is a surprising following for corvairs and many speedparts are available

on the cheap. Tires and wheels are chevvy 5-bolt.

 

Cool street machine?

[Dr. RX]

So, did you hang the V8 out over the back like the 6 was, or did you flip the tranny and make it mid engined? If you had a V8 in it, you should aready have a radiator in it. I think you biggest problem will be the rear axles, getting power from the tranny to the wheels. I believe there is a place called Clark's Corvair that sell alot of performance parts for Corvairs.

[All_talk]

A Subie drivetrain (2WD) would work if you went with a mid engine layout. The Subaru engine will spin the wrong way for thr stock Corvair transaxle, but if you wanted to stick with rear engine you could mate it up to a 4-speed VW box (or BERG 5-speed). If you are looking for 250HP or less I'd go with the EJ series 4 not the H-6, a EJ22T or EJ20G would make plenty of power and save quite a bit of weight. Could be a very cool project.

 

Just some thought

Gary

[wrw166]

So, did you hang the V8 out over the back like the 6 was, or did you flip the tranny and make it mid engined? If you had a V8 in it, you should aready have a radiator in it. I think you biggest problem will be the rear axles, getting power from the tranny to the wheels. I believe there is a place called Clark's Corvair that sell alot of performance parts for Corvairs.

 

The engine was installed in the middle with stock dif. and modified saginaw 4sp tranny. The corvair (sag) end-cap was removed and a modified (sag) input shaft intalled(from most any Chevvy trans). The modification was to internally machine the shaft to the dimensions of the corvair shaft and install the needle brgs. There was about a 3/16 plate betwee the bell housing and the trans which provided motor mounts and "collared" the t.o.b. snout which replaced the old corvair end-cap. There were 4 roll pin holes drilled thru the plate and the cast iron trans to provide allignment and as described the integrity was dependent upon the snout which was bolted to the cast iron trans--but was never cast with the idea of providing strength.

 

Corvette could have had a decent mid-engine set-up at any time merely by having Saginaw cast the 4sp Chevelle trans with the "ears" on the back end like the Corvair. The trans and differential were strong. This set up was long and heavy, however, compared to an alloy transaxle. my failures were due to hittng curbs in autocrosses. and due to mis-aligned adapter plate holes during

contruction. The kit from Crown Mfg was drag raced successfully (w/o breaking) with big blocks.

 

The competition in ice racing was stiff with: shortened Corvette auto; Chevvy Healy; Ford MGB; Porsche, Jeep Quadritrac tubeframe. I moved on to a turbo X1/9. (smaller class.) Moral: there's alot more to building a mid-engined car than the engine placement. Driving the car at night when you punched it, the headlights were in the tree-tops. Noise was deafening what with the crank pulley right about where your kidneys are!

 

Subie conversion would leave room for decent seats and engine cover. The Crown kit had Fibreglas seat and engine cover. I don't think we had ur. foam back then but it would have helped alot.(around 1978)

[Caboobaroo]

I've seen a website with the small block conversion done to a Corvair since I was planning on getting a '66 with only 35k on the ticker. All I have to say is that if you can fit a Sube drivetrain in there, that would be PIMP!

[wrw166]

Yeah. P 914 would work too, but face only a mother could love.