Aviators Historic Sports Racer

Jac Mac · 11-26-07, 01:50 AM

Heres one for all you Lysaurus & Cronkenental Wannabe Racers. An innovative & indecently fast in its day Race Car. Scott, rescue all those old manuals from the Loft, you will need them if you buy this old girl for your Kiwi Summer Racing Holiday.

Jac Mac

kiwi ka · 11-26-07, 02:47 AM

Jacv Mac. That is a piece of history, the origional continental special, a radical bit of kiwi engineering. Funny I was in Gore on Wednesday buying a Toyota MR2 and never gave a thought to looking at what you get up to. Drove it up to Christchurch on Thursday and fly back down this Thursday to complete journey to Auckland on Friday.

Jac Mac · 11-26-07, 03:24 AM

Jeeper's your keen Russell, I thought I was bad sending Donna to Timaru last Thursday to buy another car for us!
The Continental special will be a bit like the old 'Stuart Special' in my profile page, Once your in top gear it stays there, only race car I have driven that can lap Teretonga in top gear.
At least the Continental would not jump out of gear!!!

Jac Mac

Russ Noble · 11-26-07, 04:29 AM

That was a pretty amazing car with a heap of potential. Pity the owner/builder/driver was killed in an unfortunate accident in an SP250 before he could iron out all the bugs. Funny, I never remembered it as LHD, must be the early onset of 'old timers disease'. Who owns it now?

Jac Mac · 11-26-07, 04:52 AM

Its for Sale- McDonald Classics, ChCh?- NZ$69000.00. Listed on Trade-Me. Seem to remember a recent article in Classic Driver or some other mag after its restoration/rebuild etc.

Jac Mac

Russ Noble · 11-26-07, 05:17 AM

Hell! $69,000!

I remember talking to Jeff Anders only a few years ago (Jeff was the owner of the SP250 at the time that Tyrrell and Gary were killed in it and was another NAC guy involved with the Continental ) He was very interested in buying it. We figured it was worth about 20k at the time but it sold for about 30k. Now it's more than double that. That's a lot of money for a basically undeveloped car with some major mechanical/design/reliability problems.

I bet they still haven't been addressed. I hope whoever buys it goes in with their eyes open....

Ron Rowse · 11-26-07, 05:23 AM

The way I understand it. It is a copy not a rebuild or a restoration and I believe the article I read said the copy caught fire in front of the orignal family members on the presentation to the family of the copy of the orignal

Stand to be corrected
Ron.

Russ Noble · 11-26-07, 05:50 AM

Fascinating.

On the TradeMe listing there are some original photos of it in it's hey day http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...p-54597347.htm

They are presenting it as the real deal...

Scott Calabro · 11-26-07, 05:14 PM

Wow that's different!

Lots of TQ in that mill!

Cheers,
Scott

Ron Earp · 11-26-07, 10:10 PM

Alright Jac Mac, dispense with the hints, let's have a summary of this thing - I gather it is powered by a Continental or Lycoming engine? I think I can see some rocker covers in the low-res photos. Give us the lowdown please, I'm off to Google! I'm intrigued, cool stuff it appears!

R

Jac Mac · 11-26-07, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Earp

Alright Jac Mac, dispense with the hints, let's have a summary of this thing - I gather it is powered by a Continental or Lycoming engine? I think I can see some rocker covers in the low-res photos. Give us the lowdown please, I'm off to Google! I'm intrigued, cool stuff it appears!

R

Built by some A/C engineers who had an idea, that turned out to be quite good.
Rear axle is live (one piece) with two trailing arms that pivot on the same axis as the crankshaft. Suspension is by large rubber cones ( can be seen at base of rear stays of rollbar on each side- these were same units as fitted to early Morris/Austin Minis etc.)
Motor was fitted with torque converter [chev sb I think] and then either a chain drive or double bevel & shaft to rear axle [pretty certain it was morse type chain]. Motor is six cyl continental- not sure if 300 c-d etc or larger.Might have been larger from Cessna AG plane with Constant Flow injection as carb version would have been PIA in this application.
I only attended one meeting where the car raced , Wigram Air Force Base Circuit , car was very fast in spite of the 'Flat' sound from the low rpm engine. Dont think any gearbox was employed,just the converter with perhaps a starter motor configured for reverse.
Might be wrong ,but I have a feeling that it might have been solid axle at front end also.
Im sure Russ & Ron can correct me or fill in some more of the blanks.

Jac Mac

Ron Earp · 11-27-07, 12:33 PM

That is pretty cool. I didn't find a lot out about the car on Google.

Let's take a wild estimate. A 320" flat six at a high state of tune, say 310hp around 2500 RPM, then that would be what, 651 ft pounds? Not sure you could build one tuned up like that but even at 210hp it'd be a lot of torque!

Sounds like a fun ride. So the secondary chain drive is located in that housing there on the left of the axle? No diff I suppose.

Jac Mac · 11-27-07, 01:26 PM

No there is not a lot of info about, I had a look for an article when it first appeared in some old mags last night ( problem with that is you tend to get sidetracked on other interesting stuff as well ) still have not found it!
Yes you are looking at huge torque figures. The chain was in that extension housing / back hat of the rear axle- you can also make out the top/bottom rod ends of the large trailing arm that located the axle. I would hope it had a locked diff, the difference in axle lengths would add a 'new' dimension to the handling under acceleration/deceleration for the driver to cope with if a differential was fitted.
Dont believe any serious attempt was made to increase power by internal mods, the car was built over a relatively short period of time like most racecars of that era, Its only the restorers who take decades to rebuild them ( usually complete with all the original flaw's ).
Cars like this result from an idea over a couple of beers on a friday evening and are built during an off season with the dream of blowing last years champ off his perch-a really good season resulted if several groups have the same idea! This one stuck out because of its raw simplicity, its one of those cars you walk away from thinking " that wont work & about 10 seconds later- yes it bloody well will !"

Jac Mac

Scott Calabro · 11-27-07, 02:50 PM

Jac,

Good call on the F. I. ! No room for an updraft toilet there.

Probably its either a Continental IO-470 or IO-520, like this......