<VV> Su-ba-ru-ba

[James P. Rice]

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.

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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