[SECC] Roe (1960 Corvair)car testing-long and windy

[Jones, Sarah]

Warren,

Great story, thanks for sharing!!!!

Sarah

-----Original Message-----
From: secc-bounces at corvair.org [mailto:secc-bounces at corvair.org]On
Behalf Of Levair at aol.com
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 6:07 PM
To: Secc at corvair.org
Subject: [SECC] Roe (1960 Corvair)car testing-long and windy


In a message dated 4/18/05 2:04:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, levair at aol.com 
writes:

<< CP at list.carlc.com, Stamandli at comcast.net, Jtmck at netnitco.net
 
 
 all,
 
   Since I was teaching an autocross school at Fort Wayne, IN this weekend I

 took the Roe car along for some teating and tuning again. 
    As you may recall I was addressing some major problems---still many 
 smaller one to come. 
    The Weber carb (45 progressive DCOE) was flooding  because it was tilted

 maybe 5 degrees toward the float hinge. ( Finicky thing, It my get a Quadra

Jet 
 yet.).
    I removed the entire turbo set up and installed one with a tighter 
exhaust 
 scroll (.2 vs .55 A/R)  and tilted it so the blasted carb was totally
level.
    The rear end of this swing axle car was squatting way too much on 
intitial 
 take off. It had 600 # springs by my Hyd. spring rate checker. Late IRS 
 Corvairs only have about 200 # springs but are located right at the wheel. 
The 
 inboard located early ones probably aren't any stiffer at the wheel due to 
the 
 motion ratio. 
    Since these FC (truck) axles are spaced out 2" more and the wheels are
5" 
 wider the motion ratio may be approaching 2 to one. 
     I made a wild*** guess and installed 850# rear springs. 
     It worked. I installed the new springs with a length that gave 1/4 deg.

 negative camber, assuming that they would sag a bunch like any new springs 
that 
 I had ever installed. The haven't move'd of course!
    I also increased the rear anti roll bar from 3/4 to 7/8 " .
   The car had a quick steering gear box without the accompanying steering 
 arms, so I manufactured the correct steering arms. 
    There has been zero evidence so far of rear  wheel tuck under and the 
 tires are not scrubbing on the sidewall  at all.  So much for the early 
swing 
 axles being any kind of handling problem! If anything the rear is sticking 
better 
 than my late IRS car; if trying to provoke any oversteer is an indication. 
    I will try a 1" rear bar soon (Crown 1" on the front) if the car doesn't

 improve on larger, grippier smoother flowing, faster venues. I will 
eventually 
 replace the harder road racing compound front tires with some R 25
Hoosiers. 
   The rear 10"x 22" R 35s were just right though. 
    It is physically very hard to maneuver around these super tight courses 
 without some inherent oversteer. I was ill this week and the effort of lock

to 
 lock non-powered, fast steering was tremendous for me. 
     Still the results have been good. I was second in CP only to Scott 
 Lewis's tube frame champion ship Camaro. Yeah,  some little bitty front 
drivers beat 
 me too. 
    I still have a problem with heat soak on the carb between runs, but not 
 with regular use. 
    The boost is limited to 10 psi right now but is fairly quick reacting
and 
 driveable.
    It was a great weekend with 78 Deg weather, great friends and lot of 
 novices out.
     This old car got the most attention from the younger folks---go figure.
 
 Warren
  >>