GT40 versus Avenger/Valkyrie

peluchin · 06-12-02, 08:26 PM

Hello GT40’s gurues. I have been searching information thru the internet almost 6 months since I found by chance a report of the GT40. It was love at the first sight. I understand the differences between MKI, II and others, but recently I have found a car named Avenger or Valkyrie that looks very much alike a ford gt40. They were made by fiberfab. I am afraid that as they were made to fit a W.Beetle chassis, they dont have the correct lenght and width. Am I wright? From the visual standpoint…is there any other differences?

More dumb questions to come…

Thanks
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Ron Earp · 06-12-02, 11:43 PM

Far as I know this was one of the first GT40 look-alikes. VW chassis, and the body is not correct by any stretch of the imagination. Obviously, with a VW chassis you're not going to get GT40 performance.

Ron

Ian K · 06-13-02, 12:57 PM

Javier,

If you had pictures of original/replica GT40s
to compare with the Avenger/Valkyrie, you would
see plenty of visual differences beyond just
length and width. Not to mention you'd most
likely have to use a VW or Porsche engine
instead of a V8 (there are V8 conversions
for Beetle frames, but not sure how well they
hold up).

Ian

06-13-02, 02:23 PM

Javier,

I actually had one of these bodies back in the late 70's. The quality of the composite work was not good at all. Even back then the creep in the rear clip was so bad that it wouldn't line up with front section and this is why I never did anything with it. The lines are so over done that it really is a caricature of an actual GT40.

Driven · 06-13-02, 06:46 PM

I briefly entertained the thought of building one back in the late '60's (Shows you how old I am). The Avenger used the VW pan and VW, Porsche, or Corvair power. I got as far as buying a wrecked Corvair Corsa with the turbo, but (thankfully) lost interest. The Valkyrie shared the same body, but had a square tube chassis made to fit a small block Chevy V8 mounted midships. Used a Corvair transaxle. Supposedly the '66 unit was quite strong--much more so than the earlier units. I remember driving somewhere in New York state back then to see one and decided that it was well above my meager mechanical talents at the time.Probably the only Valkyrie that was ever finished! "Crown" used to do a few midship Corvair conversions back then, also using the 'Vair box.
I had my '40 at a small local show some time ago, and saw an Avenger there: Have to agree with the previous comments. Looked a lot worse than I had remembered.

06-13-02, 07:02 PM

You remember well, Mr. Driven. I remember the Corvairs with V8s in them; I even ran into one that had been undone at a vintage race last year. Yes, the Saginaw box after '66 was much stonger than the earlier ones, but they all suffered the same design flaw: they were too long. Although, they were a single box, they had the differential behind the gearbox rather than in front of it. This put the half shafts too far away from the engine. Somewhere around here I have pieces of the "How to HotRod a Corvair" left from those days. Remeber the ones that used the Tornado drive train? Although they were all automatics, they were the only American transaxle really suited to a V8.