1960's Formula Ford conversions....

[FlyingBrian]

I'm curious if anyone has ever taken a mid-late 1960's vintage FF, pulled the ford lump and thrown in something with more kick to it? Perhaps even a small V6 or V8 ?


I'm thinking something in the spirt of the 1960's grand prix cars.

[Rick Kirchner]

The old BMod solo class had a bunch of these. John McKamey used to put Buick 215's in old FF chassis, which were shortened and narrowed!

[Larry]

I know of a couple, including a Mazda rotary-powered car putting out about 300 hp. It had numerous problems, including the Hewland, which was really designed for a max of about 200 hp. If you put appropriate-sized rubber on, you'll find that you tear up spindles, axles, rockers, etc., as these were all designed around our (roughly) 100 hp Kent motors. Most of the mid-60 chassis had some flex, too. Increase the total weight and double the torque...you'll have a lot of time repairing instead of racing.

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products

[john f]

Back in the early 80's I built a Lola T204 with a 13B rotary in it. Motor dyno'd out at 240hp @ 7000 rpm. I ran this thru a Kennedy clutch/flywheel combo and into a Mk8. Didn't have any problems with the trans-axle but the fingers for the rubber doughnut would bend. Took care of that with thicker fingers. Car weighed about 900# and back then we didn't run wings so you couldn't get enough traction to hurt the trans-axle. With today's wings and tires that might not be the case any more. 0-60 in let than 2 seconds is a RUSH!. Any way, that's the way I remember it

john f

[Stan Clayton]

I'm curious if anyone has ever taken a mid-late 1960's vintage FF, pulled the ford lump and thrown in something with more kick to it? Perhaps even a small V6 or V8 ?

I'm thinking something in the spirt of the 1960's grand prix cars.

Why not something like this one?



It's the 1966 Gurney Eagle Mk1 with a four-cylinder 2.5L Coventry Climax...the first American F1 car to win an F1 race. No need to go to a V6 or V8, with all its attendant weight and stress issues. The Eagle was even FF sized, with a 96" wheelbase and a 60" track. The Kent can make 175-ish hp with side-drafts and a cam, which is more than enough to give you the e-ticket ride.

BTW, that's the formula for an original-spec FB car: 1600cc race prepped production-based engine with no wings and fat tires.

[Brian]

Exactly! If you want a late 1960's Formula Ford with something interesting in it, look no further than any 1960's F2, F3 or FB car, with 1600 cc twin-cam or 1 litre screamer, or an early 1970's atlantic car (Lotus 69 was available as a FFord, a F2 car FB car or Atlantic spec), or for real fun find an early F5000. They were slightly oversized FFords as far as I'm concerned!

Brian

[Stan Clayton]

Brian, I think he talking about an inexpensive conversion, rather than buying an existing car with provenance.

FlyingBrian, I am considering doing this to my '75 Zink Z-10B FF that was converted to CSR in 1989 with a 1.8L water cooled SuperVee motor (see below).

A number of them were converted to SuperVee in the early 80's, like the yellow one below. You can see that the Zink is very similar in layout to the Gurney above, so it might make a passable ersatz Walter Mitty-ish replicar. I considered dropping in a V6/8, but any I could afford would not look right anyway, and would way over-stress everything from the chassis to brakes, Hewland, fuels system, etc.





Anyway, hope that gives you some inspiration...

[PCalhoun]

The old BMod solo class had a bunch of these. John McKamey used to put Buick 215's in old FF chassis, which were shortened and narrowed!

Jim McKamey's creations were generally constructed using discarded/scrapped Formula B/Atlantic chassis. Mike Mahan in St Louis had/has one of them, which was a Lola. Jim's wife Trudi's car was based on a Techno, and Stevie Tamandli's tubeframe Fiero used Chevron components. All using the alum block Buick of various displacements, but Stevie's car is now small block Chevy powered.

My favorite McKamey creation remains, however, his twin-enigne Yugo. Yes- Yugo w/ a four cylinder Dodge turbo driving the fornt wheels and a big block Olds Toronado drinving the rear. In the words of George Bowland "that thing is slower than my Nash in high school", but god was it great to see peoples faces when he popped the hood.

[provamo]

the Eagle"s first and only Formula One Grand Prix victory (Spa '67) was powered by the Westlake V-12

[e-drive115]

I think you are on a good track here. The older chassis can be put to continued use with careful modification / update. Look at what the UK guys have been doing in hillclimbs for years. The McCamey approach has certainly been interesting over the years, but the original car has been at times sacrificed to get there. That's one of the reasons I dropped out of that type competition. I would not cut up my Brabham BT-29. With planning a car can be upgraded yet keep the ability to return to its former self if desired.

I see this as a form of resto-mod. I am currently doing this with a 1969 chassis directed at track day use. At the moment we are into designing aluminum brake hats, caliper mounts, and fitting aluminum calipers. People will look at it and say "that's not legal for FF". True. But I'm not planning to run there .... and it's all un-boltable for going back to vintage specs later.

Best part is that the car will still have the overall appearance of the original.

Let me also add that my project(s) has a number of former IndyCar chief mechanics involved. We are having a ball with these cars, and they are not even on the track yet

Here's an example

[Stan Clayton]

Here's an example

The example didn't post...please try again. Thx!

[provamo]

e-drive.....luv the turbine!

[Stan Clayton]

What turbine? All I see are two postage stamp sized photos of Club Fords.

Seriously, can you post larger photos? Thanks!

[Offcamber1]

What, no Gold Leaf Team Lotus version? I'm crushed!

[e-drive115]

What, no Gold Leaf Team Lotus version? I'm crushed!

Actually ... the GLTL car is in the paint shop now. Expect it to be done in about 30 days.