<VV> Su-ba-ru-ba

[jvhroberts at aol.com]

 Unfortunately, Subaru engines rotate the same as nearly all other engines, and opposite of the Corvair. 
It is also VERY difficult to reverse one of these. Also, the Subaru ring gear is unflippable, being hypoid, and inverting a Subaru tranny, given the extreme offset between the input shaft and the differential, would put the engine far too close to the ground, or the halfshafts will have an unacceptably large angle. 
But there are adapters to connect a Subaru engine to a Porsche transaxle, so, there is a way. 

 

John Roberts
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: James P. Rice <ricebugg at mtco.com>
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Sent: Sun, Jul 11, 2010 10:26 pm
Subject: <VV> Su-ba-ru-ba


Warren:  Am I the only one who thinks if the Corvair was still in production

today in the original configuration, I would have something akin to a Subaru

in the back end.



Has anybody tried to put a Su-ba-ru-ba into a Corvair, much like the BOP V-8

conversions of many years ago.  I wonder which way the engine rotates if the

entire drive train was rotated 180 degs and plopped in the LM Vair's engine

compartment.  Hummm....400 hp from a physically smaller (and lighter?)

engine....  I bet John Roberts knows.



Heretically Yours,

            James



PS to Mark:  While John Fitch is indeed a man of style and a true gentleman,

among many other fine qualities, he copied the LM Sprint roof line from the

Porsche 904.  Which actually was the last race car he and Briggs Cunningham

drove.  Think it was Sebring in '65 or '66.  I'm to lazy to get the book out

and look it up tonight.  Both Porsche and Ferrari were dealing with

visibility and air flow issues with mid-engine GT-type cars.  Both came up

near concurrently with approximately the same answer in the 904 and the

250LM.  Porsche probably hit it first with the 718 series of flat 8 cyl race

cars in the eary 60's.  Again, I'm to lazy to look it up, even when the

books are only two steps away.



********************************************



Message: 8

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:20:17 -0400

From: levair at aol.com

Subject: <VV> Subaru driving

To: virtualvairs at Corvair.org, fastvair at yahoogroups.com,

    Indyscca at egroups.com



I had a great experience today guest driving a  400 HP AWD Subaru WRX which

was very well prepared. This car is often FTD at our events.  Many thanks to

Chuck Mcmillion for the chance and the preparation.



We had five runs at Grissom AFB near Kokomo IN. Grissom is very grippy

concrete and the courses are quite fast and flowing.



Where these  4 wheel drive cars really excel is on the less grippy surfaces,

so the concrete was sort of an uphill test.

    Due to having 3 drivers and two class, I had to run in SM instead of

SMS. That put me in the same class as my son's street driven YS 045 Stinger.

      My SMS  class had to run in the FIRST heat and the other 2 drivers in

the 2nd heat, so I had to learn nearly every thing on my own by trying and

failing. I had never  even sat in one of these cars before and had never

raced a car with power steering and power brakes: much

less AWD.

    I had tons of well meant advice, but my head was swimming.

        I went 2 seconds faster on my 2nd run buy not thinking so much.

        By trying very hard , but relaxing   and  letting the car come to me I

was able to finish in the same 48 sec bracket as the no 2 driver but not in

the same bracket as Chuck's  low 47s and high 46s.

        I surprisingly, was able to get the car to rotate some in the sweepers;

then I got way too brave on my last run and rotated it 360 degrees.

     In the next heat I got to ride with Chuck and learn how to correctly

drive the car: too little too late of course.

    An interesting thing that I did learn, that Front drivers and FWD drivers

obviously already knew , was the acceleration inward toward the apex with

increased power application. Acceleration in the direction that the wheels

were turned.

        Chuck tried 2nd gear in the fast sweeper that I been using 3rd gear in.

The extra power drew the car inward toward the shorter/closer line. Rear

wheel drive cars push outward with the same power application unless using

power on, tail out oversteer (if there is room to do so).

The favorite line of the AWD cars seems to be hard braking to get pointed in

and then huge power application.

        There is a lot of cammaradie in this class of cars and they are very

popular.A great asset is that the car also be used for very many other

activities. Lets' see, what else can I use my modified car for????

        I was pleased and satisfied with my performance and thrilled to get the

chance to participate in this form of racing.



Hmmm,, any more loaner cars out there? I've been loaning mine a lot lately.



Warren







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