A 1967 Corvette Roadster Gasser?

[Go4fun]

If this isn't 'What If' enough for this group I wonder what is?
THE STORY:
Bob's older brother Dean had a red -67 Corvette Roadster and the (misguided) idea he was the greatest driver since Novalari. He had the car 7 months when he discovered his mistake as the Baxter's "100 Year Oak" jumped right out in front of him while he was doing 50 MPH! After Dean got out of the hospital he found the insurance company wouldn't pay the full cost of a replacement and decided maybe a 1968 Camaro with a 327 was better.
Of course he stole the 427 engine and Muncie 4 speed transmission out of the 'Vette and placed them in the Camaro! Then he sold the whole rear suspension and seats to someone. Being the generous brother he was he signed the title to the hulk in the back yard over to Bob. Bob was over joyed, much to Dean's amazement. While Dean was picking up girls in his shiny new car his brother was driving his 1958 Volkswagen Bug to every drag race he could. And working at Larry's Texico Garage he had learned a lot. Especially as Larry ran an 'A Blown/Gas' 33 Willys at the drags! Thus the build was on.
First thing was to shed all the broken fiberglass bodywork on the front then torch off all the bent metal front end parts. They ended up with quite a pile as they ended up cutting the car off from the firewall/cowl forward! They needed an engine and Larry knew of one. A strange one for sure but a real good deal: A Packard Marine 410 Cubic Inch Supercharged engine out of an old speedboat that was almost too cheap to believe!
Issues? It had a water manifold on the BACK of the engine so setting it back would require more surgery on the fire wall. Can you spell 'Plumbing nightmare'?

[Go4fun]

Seeing as there was a perfectly good photo of the real car on top of the kit box I had to put it in my computer and 'play with it' to see what ideas I could come up with.

Seeing as the time frame is the late 60's I figured it would be better to have a heavier car so it ends up on the BB/GS (B weight bracket, B 'Blown' or supercharged classification / GaS Class. Meanwhile Larry got Bob a helmet and a set of 'real' seat belts for his VW and got him to running down the strip to get used to the procedure.

[NARSES2]

I'm not sure what half of this means (never been a petrol head) but sounds interesting 

[Hobbes]

So, a Corvette with the front end removed like on a hot rod? Or are you going to replace the front of the body with something else?

[jcf]

This is a Stingray Gasser, what he's talkin' bout would look similar but with the '67 Roadster body.



Google Corvette Gasser and you'll get loads of images. Basically a big engine, big fat rear slicks and little skinny
fronts with a lift.

[Go4fun]

I think they have to look stock like the photo  joncarrfarrelly posted. But if I remember right some aftermarket manufacturer made one piece fiberglass front ends that were lighter than the factory parts. I'll hang two headlights in the grill and use the old stock turnlights in the stock place.  
It's a drag racer built to go 1/8th or 1/4 mile in a straight line. Change the tires to something more 'streetable' (ie: Legal!), and close off the open exhaust and you can drive it to the races and (Hopefully!) drive it home afterwards. Driving it to and from work daily? Maybe if you like being hassled by the Police, a rough ride, and trying to see around all that engine sticking up! You couldn't do it today. Too many laws instituted since then.
"Loud, fast and scary!" used to define  hot rod. That's how we rolled in the '50s thorough the early '70s.  

[Go4fun]

And now back to our tale.
Larry having helped Bob strip the Vette down to the firewall/cowl next put Bob and his friend Tim to work getting everything out of the inside of the car. They couldn't just rip and tear tho because some of this 'junk' would be reused and there is always a market for Corvette parts. Larry knew that he would have to plan out the rebuild and took meassurements and then sat down with the pad of artist's paper, ruler, compass, drafting square and a bunch of pencils, some colored.
So he drew and redrew, using a factory manual to get an idea of what the stock chassis looked like from where it was cut off back. He had to build light and strong which isn't easy. This is what he came up with.



(This is my plan for the model as it fits with the period and the rules).

[Hobbes]

Driving it to and from work daily? Maybe if you like being hassled by the Police, a rough ride, qand trying to see around all that engine sticking up! You couldn't do it today. Too many laws instituted since then.

In the US maybe. In the UK, there still are some mental road-legal cars thanks to some unusual legislation for single vehicle approval.
- a Vauxhall Victor dragracer with some 2000 bhp (do a search for Red Victor)
- an Audi 80 dragracer with ~1400 bhp
- a Rover SD1 with a Rover Meteor tank engine

[PR19_Kit]

A friend of mine in MN has a pole barn full of outrageous cars, one of which is a '66 Ford Ranchero fitted with a big 400 cu ins Cleveland motor with a GMC 6-71 blower on the top.

Naturally this sticks out through the hood around a foot above normal level and the whole shebang shoves out around 700 bhp on a good day. I've ridden shotgun in this thing some 20 odd miles into our plant in Eden Prairie MN and no-one gives us a second glance, even the Highway Patrol and County Sheriffs!

Are the rules different in MN to elsewhere in the US?

[Go4fun]

I don't think a car like that is illegal per say, just something built for the straight line drag race first and drivability second can be a pain in the backside on the street. And I've had Deputies pull me over and do a 'Roadside Inspection' because I had mag wheels and fat tires on my car(s)!
I had an 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that I stuffed a Pontiac 455 'Super Duty engine and 'Built' turbo 400 transmission in. It all went in fairly easy, GM V-8 engine into GM V-8 vehicle). I ran 'short pipes' that came out in front of the back tires with glasspacks and the local Deputies Stopped me all the time. One even said my fuzzy dice on the mirror "Hampered vision"! 
So I went "Low Profile" in that County. I had a full length exhaust built with the mufflers at the rear. I bought two giant Cadillac mufflers BUT I built slip connectors and quick change brackets for those and the glasspacks and. Had a milk crate in the trunk and the dice and glsspacks went in there. Then I put an old baby seat in the back, baby shoes on the mirror, a "Baby On Board" sign suctioned cupped to the back window and put some nice wheel covers on my shiny mags. Let the air shocks down so it looked 'normal' and they never stopped me.
Get to town, (In a different County), and take a break for a burger and drink while the car cooled. Switch the mufflers, throw the baby junk and hubcaps in the trunk then go air up the shocks, put on my dice and 'Cruised the boulevard' as we called it.
There are ways to have fun if your willing. 

[jcf]

Hi Kit,
the rules vary state-to-state and in some places by county and municipality. The Feds have
safety  rules that apply to manufacturers, but custom cars fall under local regs. During the
summer show season up here in Washington state it's not uncommon to see full-blown
rods on the road and the occasional drag car on the way to the strip. Basically, if it meets local
roadability standards, yer good to go. Of course, that doesn't mean you won't run occasionally afoul
of an asshat with a badge. 

[PR19_Kit]

Ahah, yes, I'd forgotten the Federal/State/County confusion that is part of the American way!

Sometimes our Traffic cops get a bit above themselves too. I had a Vauxhall Sports Hatch in the 70s and 80s, piccie below, and I was always being stopped '.....because we have orders to check on these customised cars.....'. Sadly for them the Hatch wasn't customised, it was a factory built model, but they only built 197 of them so it's not surprising the cops didn't know about it. I took to carrying a copy of a classic car magazine around with me that featured my actual car. That slowed them down a tad. 

[Go4fun]

Oh PR19_Kit that is just a loverly piece of machinery. :drool: It combines the light cover shape and nose of a Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird, the beaked nose like a Pontiac and the 'Golf/Rabbit Clone' look of an early American Ford Escort.
I had an Escort that someone backed into while it was parked and drove away before I saw it. It must have been a tall truck because it punched a hole in the plastic nose right over the grill opening. So I opened it all up to the shape of a 1990 Ford Thunderbird grill and then screened over it and built a polished aluminum frame around it. I painted it black except the polished grill and then painted around the headlights black to get the 'T-Bird' shape and used chrome tape to outline it.
I had one cop do a quick u-turn, stop me, walk past me to look at it again and then ask me "Just what the hell Ford model is this"!?   We then pulled into a parking lot and talked cars for 15 minutes during his 'break'.

[PR19_Kit]

Sadly my Hatch, PLR985R, no longer exists as I kept it in a council owned garage on the other side of town. One day, when I was in the US for three weeks, the big tree to one side of the block of garages was blown down and flattened three of the garages and the cars inside, including PLR! The council wrote me a kind letter sating that it had happened and then their property agency wrote me another one giving me 7 days to remove the wreck! Of course I got both letters when I returned by which time they'd hauled my car off and scrapped it.....

I took them to court and won but no amount of money could buy another Hatch, specially one as good as mine was. I did manage to recover the engine, those Vauxhall 2.3 slant fours are pretty tough, but the whole body shell was squashed down to about 9" thick!

[Go4fun]

Sadly my Hatch, PLR985R, no longer exists as I kept it in a council owned garage on the other side of town. One day, when I was in the US for three weeks, the big tree to one side of the block of garages was blown down and flattened three of the garages and the cars inside, including PLR! The council wrote me a kind letter sating that it had happened and then their property agency wrote me another one giving me 7 days to remove the wreck! Of course I got both letters when I returned by which time they'd hauled my car off and scrapped it.....

I took them to court and won but no amount of money could buy another Hatch, specially one as good as mine was. I did manage to recover the engine, those Vauxhall 2.3 slant fours are pretty tough, but the whole body shell was squashed down to about 9" thick!

Oh my Lord! I had a 1968 Pontiac LeMans that was a GTO tiger in all but name. I called it "My GTO in a tuxedo" as it was a sharp looking white car with a black vinyl top. I scavenged every junkyard (Scapper) for GTO parts like suspension and exhaust. Then I planted 355 cubic inch Chevrolet engine I had for a race car I junked in there with a 'built' Turbo 350 transmission. It got stolen and by the time the cops found it it looked like a bag of marbles after being striped out of anything of value.  Looked like they ran over it with large farm machines then took sledge hammers to it.