Muscle Car talk

[jdgang]

Swapping engines in different cars was pretty easy a while back.. Lots of engine room - even to where on some you could almost climb inside an engine compartment and close the hood. Swapping some engines and parts were easier than others. If you compare Chevy small block V-8 with Ford's engine - the Chevy V-8 engine started in 1955 with a 265 cu in went on to 283, 302, 307, 327, 350 and 400 with basically the same motor mount system and most internal parts interchangeable. So one could take a 327 block and build a 302 or a 327 or a 350 depending on what stroke of the crank you used. To hear a well builkd tuned 302 is music to the ears. Made the Z-28 Camero quite famous. This motor is basically unchanged from its early days to todays well designed and built LS1 Corvette motor 5.7 liter motor and the LS2 6.0 liter motor, and is still a push rod design. Amazing! 52 year old design and still top of the class. One interesting fact on custom built "Hot Rods - Roadsters" the most popular body style like the 1925-1940s are Fords have more Chevy small block engines in them than they do have Ford engines. Ford engines starting with the 312 cu in and 351 and 352s are complete puzzles and know one knows why. Regarding gear boxes -- there are so many adapters out there for so many trannys you can mix and match just about anything.

And alot of these Roadsters even with the Chevy small block still rock the ford 9 inch rear end.

[C5 Golfer]

James Bond stunt Car Mods...

I found it in my Autoweek archive... here is the story on fitting Ford V-8 into a Jaguar and the Aston..

In Die Another Day, there is only one Q, purveyor of gadgetry, played nowadays by John Cleese. Behind the scenes there are two. Finlayson is the weapons man; the brains behind the cars is Andy Smith, whose film credits include the Batmobile.

“Bond is the ultimate for any special-effects car builder,” beams Smith, who spent $2 million on the latest Bond cars. “And Die Another Day, in car terms, is going back to basics. Having Bond back in an Aston was very special for a lot of people. For me and my team it was a real honor to build the Vanquish. But it was a tough call. “We had to build eight cars [four Astons and four Jags] in 12 weeks. All we had was a set of computer drawings to use as reference for the cars and what we had to do to them. There was no time to draw it all out. We knew that we had to remove the V12 engines from both cars, and fit in the bay a Ford V8 and a four-wheel-drive system from an Explorer.

“The Aston was pretty easy, we just unbolted the front, but being a monocoque, the Jag was a lot more complicated... luckily we got it right pretty well first time,” he says. “Mind you, I had 20 or so of the best guys in the business working day and night for three months.”

An Explorer drivetrain? Jokulsárlón is why. It’s a lagoon in Iceland. Last winter it became the focus of filming for Die Another Day. The lagoon was dammed, and in temperatures of minus 30 degrees, it froze solid as a massive ice lake—where devilish Gustav Graves lives in his ice palace. It is also where Bond and Zao clash in a slippery car chase.

Smith’s team set up base in a tented camp on the edge of the lagoon. His tools and spares filled 13 shipping containers. The temperature dived so low that car batteries froze and the car froze to the ice floor. Even in the heated tents the thermo-meter rarely broke freezing.http://www.autoweek.com/weekart/2002/1230/1230bond1.jpg" width="250" height="168" alt="" border="0" align="left" hspace="7" vspace="7">

“Four-wheel drive was a must, for traction,” says Smith. “But also we had studded tires. Originally Yokohama came up with ones with 1000 studs. They were too good. We couldn’t get the car to slide at all. So we used standard road tires, fitted with about 60 three-millimeter studs in the end, which was more spectacular by far.” Smith reckons that below 100 mph there are few cars he has built that have better traction. He also had to ensure reliability. At an estimated $20,000 an hour for shooting, a broken stunt car is a costly heap of metal.

HERE is the entire article

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021230/FREE/212300702&SearchID=73277862031751

[pebu]

That's right up there with owning an Edsel or worse - what the special stunt company of one of the recent James Bond movies - don't remember which one - installed a Ford engine in one of the Aston Martins for some of the movie stunts.

I think I just died a little inside...

[Neil Gendzwill]

I recall that for a while it was popular to install American V8s into old Jaguar E-types, simply for the reliability. They'd chuck the wiring at the same time and install decent harnesses.

[Bullwings]

One of the saddest stories I know of is of my buddy and his dad. They're real ford guys. (I'm a chevy guy, but it has no bearing on this story...) Randy (the dad) has a real nice Model A, I believe with a mustang engine driving it that he drags. Beautiful car and it sounds good and everything. He also has a pinto that he souped up and drags. Another beautiful car (as long as it has fatties on the back). And Kevin has a Lincoln that they souped up and it's got good sound and gets up pretty good. And then the blasphemy happens.. They've had this 56 chevy sittin in their garage out back for years... It's finally running again... with a ford engine!

When they told me that I just about cried... I think it's considered vandalism or destruction of property or something. I mean, being a ford guy is one thing, but doing that...

you think that's bad, even worse is what I read they did to on of the cars in The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift (which I didn't watch -- i've more self respect than that). They took a '67 Mustang and did a full engine swap. They engine they threw in there was from an R34 Nissan Skyline GTR, OMG, blasphemy.

I completely respect the R34 GTR and its engine (an inline 6 cylinder twin turbo). It's a great motor infact, putting out around 330hp (even though Nissan only claimed 280hp due to the long standing power cap that Japan had on their cars), but to do that kind of swap is something else.

It's disrespectful to both manufacturers... The R34 GTR is an awesome handling car that was designed around the Nurburgring and made to run with the likes of the older model 911 Porsches (see 964 and 993). The '67 Mustang is an all American classic muscle car with a classic pushrod V8 (nevermind that it had less than adequate handling).

Still, the engineering behind all of it is awesome. I just don't know if I approve.

[jdgang]

I recall that for a while it was popular to install American V8s into old Jaguar E-types, simply for the reliability. They'd chuck the wiring at the same time and install decent harnesses.

there is also a kit to put chevy small block v-8 into the XJS as well. This was a easy swap due to the fact that the jag use a tubro hydramatic 350

[skategoat]

Have you ever seen a CheVolvo? Talk about a sleeper:

http://www.onr.com/user/jklier/index.html

[Blackbird]

There is just no Replacement for Displacement!

I disagree... There is a replacement for displacement.... a big Turbo !!!!!

I'm biased, I drive an Evo 6 Lancer.....

Though v8's sound so gooooooood!!

My fav muscle car was the 69 Dodge Charger... sorry dukes of hazzard did it to me early in life.....

The older Jag's had woeful electrics... most english heritage cars did... lucas electrics grafted in an evil spirit into each and every car....LOL

A work colleague had an old XJS V12 that would come up with a different electrical issue every week....

Best thing you could do is toss the harness and engine and put something much more reliable in it's place.....

Steve

[Neil Gendzwill]

Have you ever seen a CheVolvo? Talk about a sleeper:

Cool. My buddy used to have a '63 Valiant, the kind with the slant 6 and push-button tranny. Except his had a tricked-out wedge 340 and a TorqueFlite with a shift kit. Had to cut out a bunch of sheet metal under the hood to make it fit. I think it ran in the low 13s.

[fin]

A large V8 with a big cam idling is like listen to a symphony.....a 500+ hp symphony. Just say "Potato" over and over again as fast as you can....now you got it.

A friend of mine is involved with the a local Cobra restoration club. One day he drove over to the shop to show me the latest project. When he pulled up it sound like a herd of angry buffalo beating on the garage door. What he had was an authentic (NOT kit) AC Cobra "Race Edition". Yes, that right, a standard Cobra is way too slow so they made 24 of these special race models for the street. No bumpers, extra light parts, etc. (pic below)

So we get in for a ride. We moved North out of town where the roads get long and straight right away. Imagine taking a shopping cart, stuffing a motor way too large into it, and then as an after thought, squeeze in two poorly designed seats for the victims. I like speed but this was getting even me un-easy. We passed 6 cars at one point and it was like they had all stopped to have lunch on the road we went by so fast. At one point we actually came up to God driving a convertible Jag (yea, it was strange) and passed him as well. Man was he pissed.

Couple of things I found interesting about this legend of a car. It is extremely poor in the ergonomic department. I never drove it, but the pedals are all squished over to the left (to clear the tranny), the shifter is in line with your shoulder, the steering wheel is the size of a man-hole cover (manual steering), and engaging the clutch was like leg pressing a small condo. You literally have to go to the gym to hope to drive this more then 20 minutes.

Look at the shifter position in the picture. Now imagine where the tranny stops after that. The drive shaft looks like two U-Joint welded together with no actual drive shaft between them. Cool. Touch the side pipes in any way, 3rd degree burn before you can even scream.

Its noisy, it handles medium at best, and safety is almost non-existent. Would I take one....damn right I still remember that ride.

You can see my poor Subi project just behind it. Still working on it but hope to get the motor at least started soon. I love V8's but a well tuned small engine with forced induction is also a blast. And

all-wheel drive, yum.

[pebu]

I would marry that car.

[Neil Gendzwill]

You'd have to, you couldn't afford a wife if you bought it. The real cobras are going for silly money these days, 3 or 4 million.

[AaronG]

Have you ever seen a CheVolvo? Talk about a sleeper:

I didn't have a Chevolvo but I did own a Folvo or Volvord, whatever name you wanted to call it.

I started off with a '84 Volvo 240 turbo station wagon with a blown engine. I installed a 5.0 liter v-8 out of a '89 Mustang GT with the AOD transmission. It was a fun project and very easy. There was only one hole that I had to drill to make things work, that was a hole in the firewall to run the engine management harness into the cockpit of the car. Of Corse, I had to have a driveline made and a few other things done but it came out great.

I had a/c, cruise control, power everything and a whopping 225 hp. with 300 foot lbs of torque under my foot. It was the ultimate Q-ship, a grocery getter on the outside but a full on rocket ship once you hit the gas.

I got an offer on it that I couldn't refuse, shortly after the guy bought it he wrapped it around a telephone pole and then tried to sue me. His grounds were that I installed an unsafe engine into a car that was never amde for it.

Fortunately, I had him sign a contract before he drove away stating he was aware of what he was buying and the moddfications that took place.

[C5 Golfer]

Hey Volvo guy -- where's the photo?

[AaronG]

My bro who lives in Salt Lake City just sent some pictures of a car that is a prototype but possibly slated for production depending on how much feedback they get. It is called the 789 at this point in time but I am sure the name will change if it gets the green light.

It is built on a Corvette C6 chassis, engine and transmission. The front end is styled after a 57 Chev, the sides from a 58 Chev and the rear from a 59, hence the 789 name. I say build this thing!!!

[C5 Golfer]

Too bad the Tucker Automobile died about 1948-- the car had a 589 cu in (9.7 L ) flat six. Given a little engineering, proper breathing it may have been the ultimate muscle motor.

[C5 Golfer]

Check ou this link -- this Modern day Corvette is modeled after a 1962 but installed on a 1997 -2004 C5 Corvette Chassis. These are made just south of me in Tacoma Washington.

http://www.crcoachworks.com/index.phtml

[Neil Gendzwill]

I dunno - the severely raked windshield just doesn't look right.

[C5 Golfer]

I dunno - the severely raked windshield just doesn't look right.

Yes it does look phunny but they could on do so much when they did this conversion. They build about 3 a month at $65,000 and up a pop. The aspect ratio of the body length and width is a bit off from the original 1962 ( The real 62 looked great - just drives horrible)

[Neil Gendzwill]

I know this doesn't exactly qualify as a muscle car, despite over 600 horse, but I think I'm in love:

[AaronG]

Yes it does look phunny but they could on do so much when they did this conversion. They build about 3 a month at $65,000 and up a pop. The aspect ratio of the body length and width is a bit off from the original 1962 ( The real 62 looked great - just drives horrible)

I think it looks pretty damn nice, even with the swept back windshield. The problem with the more upright windshields is that they would cause a horrible vortex right where you are sitting, this is speaking from experience. The swept back windshield does sacrifice a bit of cockpit space and occasional impacts from your head while entering/exiting the car but more than makes up for the negatives by adding quiet motoring with the top down.

What?? C5, you don't like all the push and scrub that the old muscle cars tended to have?? My bro, has a 71 Chevelle w/ a 396/402 that he put in a Hodgkiss suspension along with some big ole Baer brakes. I nver thought late model american muscle could handle like on rails, his does!! Oh, and you gotta love that big block throttle induced oversteer mixed in there too!!

[C5 Golfer]

AHHH! the beauty of brute American Muscle Power

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=CW&Dato=20070411&Kategori=PHOTOS04&Lopenr=411001&Ref=PH