>
>>I brought up the idea of putting a rover V8 into a Spitfire, and he thought
>>it would be fairly easy to acheive.
> It also breaks the synchros in a standard gearbox and the original
> diff won't last five minutes. Given the design of the rear end, it;s
> hard to fit a substitute.
But possible, as a fellow in New Zealand has shown by fitting Datsun
180B diffs to Heralds and Vitesses:
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I just wouldn't do it.
Neither would I, but links from the above page show some intriguing alternatives.
Don't be silly the chassis simply isn't man enough as are the rear suspenson, transmision and rear brakes. When building any kind of special you have got to consider the vehicle as a whole not just a slot to put an engine.
Tigers corner very nicely (a lot better than a Spitfire) -- but not that fast in straight line with the standard engines although they do have fabulous bottom end torque.
Having read all the replies I am a bit surprised you've not had one from someone who has actually done it. Chap I work with has a Rover V8 in his hurricane. He races all over the place for fun...in fact we're off to the Nurburg in a month. I have a feeling that he runs a pretty standard diff/clutch/gearbox and doesn't have problems. THe thing he does say is to make sure everything is working as it should. You'll get more info from his site.
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Contact him through the vincent hurricane site. He's the founder of the car.
Even the first production Spitfires had Merlins which put out over 1000HP, I doubt that you'd even be able to take off with the puny a 3.5 litre Rover V8 up front. And the others are right - with such a change in centre of mass the tail wheel/rear axle just won't be able to cope with the extra load - let alone the effect on the flight dynamics.
However, if you're still unperturbed I remember seeing an article (I think in the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club mag) about a guy that built a scaled down Spitfire and utilised a 'hot' Jaguar V12. Remember to consider how you'll address the issue of the air density changing with altitude and I guess you'll need to sort out some dry-sump lubrication or something...
"The Blue Max" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com...
No the suspension engineers at Rootes were the best in the business, Rootes were just about the first (along with Vauxhall) UK volume car company into independant suspension (it was while working at Humber in the 1930s that Issigonnis learned his trade) Jack Channer's team did a very good job the series Minx front suspension, Chapman had used Minx front end parts on some of his most successful early designs. When the Ford 260 engine was fitted to the Shelby made sure it sat tight against the bulkhead this together withe the engines light weight and small size (its a good bit shorter than the Rover-Buick engine) ensured the weight distribution hardly changed. When the Husk/Cob floor pan was adapted for the Alpine a lot of effort went into ensuring that it was stiffened sufficiently with substantial x frame subchassis grafted on underneath and stiffening members between the bulkhead and front arches. At the rear the leaf sprung live axle might look crude but leaf springs give the suspension desigher the opertunity to use rear sterring effects control the under steer/ over steer relationship by careful choice of mounting points and spring camber. The only fly in the ointment was axle trap even on the Mark 1 , which had a truck engine and actually wasn't that powerful but had truly massive torque. All the road test of the time are very complimentary of the handling, reffering to controlable throttle induced oversteer.
In contrast the Spitfire chassis lacks torsional stiffness (backbone chassis aren't that stiff unless like the Lotus Elan and Austin Champ the body tub forms an integral part of the structure) and the rear suspension design is perhaps the most iffy swing axle ever built, on the later marks they effectively improved the handling by lowering it almost to the bump stops to give negative camber.
Please excuse the slightly irregular posting here, but while I think the contribution of the Coote Group (as the humourists at the 'Motor' would have it) to the history of the automobile business in this country has been grossly underestimated, there's a point or two I would, very politely, beg to differ with. . .
Unfortunately he didn't stay very long. Billy Rootes was more interested in making cars that looked nice and could be sold by advertising and product placement in films etc. than in cars that handled properly. The 'Evenkeel' suspension fitted to Humbers and big Hillmans in the mid to late-30's was more for comfort than cornering and the cart sprung Minx of the period used to suffer from the most incredible roll oversteer.
This was not a time when the older Rootes had a lot of control over things was it? It hadn't got completely taken over by Chrysler, but it was in the air and the old guard were either dead or loosing control. There was a fairly pronounced change of generations, especially in the Engineering Department at that time who did know what they were doing and occasionally used to slip it by the people upstairs.
You may well be right, but most of the ones I am familiar with used Triumph bits. I had up to now thought I was unique in using Rootes uprights on a Formula Junior racer way back when the world was young.
When the Ford 260 engine was fitted
The tramp could probably be cured with suitable control arms (and probably was, I'm just not familiar with the model, though I have driven Alpines) and throttle induced oversteer is what it's all about, isn't it?
Swing axles are nasty things, but Tim Fry and Mike Parkes used them on the Imp to give it almost front wheel drive handling. Which doesn't say that it couldn't be improved by the addition of lots of negative camber.
Issigonis wasn't the only chap who knew what he was doing to have worked at the Humber. While I was there the guy in charge of Experimental had run a very effective blown Austin 7 single seater pre-war and I think, before he went to Vauxhall, Burgess was there too, though I could be wrong, and later Mike Parkes went to Italy and sorted the Lancia Stratos, drove F1 for Ferrari and was killed on an autostrada while testing a road going Ferrari.
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