In a message dated 98-11-17 13:22:28 EST, brian_s@deq.state.la.us writes:
> How a boutthat...and me having a freind that just took possesion of two
> rover V-8's. HMMMM, talk about great in a straight line but not worth a
> sh*t in a corner.
From: DANMAS@aol.com
Nay, nay, my friend, it doesn't have to be so! A rover V8 weighs a LOT less
than the 6 cylinder used in the GT6 (about 75 pounds), and how bad do they
handle? Not bad at all, I would suspect. If done right, a Rover/Spit
should
handle quite well indeed!
FWIW, Peter Cook did a little book on Spitfires and GT6s a few years back.
In it, in the GT6 chapter, he devotes about one paragraph to a Rover-V8
equipped GT6 that some of the Triumph engineers threw together. The V8 was,
as Dan says, lighter that the six and no suspension changes were required.
It went like stink and didn't have any handling problems.
I've always been intrigued by this conversion and talked to Don Schumacher
about it last summer at the VTR convention. Don owns a fair number of the
aluminum V8s and he said that the six to V8 conversion was relatively easy
in a GT6. He then went on to say, however, that it'd tear up the
differential in a few weeks. He recommended converting the diff to a Datsun
510 unit, along with associated supension pieces and subframe. This, of
course, costs some real money. I believe he said that they had run such a
car in some type of race and done quite well. Does anybody have any info on
this? Thinking about it now, I can't imagine what it would be eligible for.
Others said that an easier (but still not cheap) way to fix the diff
inadequacy is with a Qaife (sp?) unit.
Still on my list of things to do.
-- Andy Lindberg (GT6 in Minnesota)
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