68 Camaro Project

[Brian Conn]

....Outstanding build  .... will be using this as mid 70's dirt late Model reference material.
  I do have a question....I'm intrigued..laying the radiator forward like you did....no fan blade necessary....was this for under the hood clearance or as a way to protect the lower portion of the radiator in the 1:1 world and did the air box out ahead of the radiator really direct enough air thru the radiator with out a fan blade pulling it thru....not doubting you, just want your take on it.  Seen air boxes before, but never anything from that era on dirt.     

[Lefturns75]

Brian, the radiator thing is something I saw a few times and an idea I borrowed from the Chaparral, McLaren and Lola's of that era.  (Have a look at the radiator in those cars)  There are a few more components that go with that sort of system but I left them off on this build.  After all, it's a Model and Representation and not a replica and won't be turning real laps.  Besides, most that see it won't know what they are looking at anyway.   Since water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon, the idea is to get that weight a little lower to help the CG and with under hood clearance as with the other cars I mentioned.  During some slow pace laps or sitting in the pits a fan would help but while at speed there is plenty of air flow to cool.  There is more to all this but we are building models, not the real thing so no need to go into all the details and theories.  Since I built this one with some of my "twists" I added it.  I had seen this years ago and thought it was a pretty cool idea.  The cars I saw this on never ran over 210 degrees even in a 200 lapper and those guys were running up front and winning so they got something right.  I am not sure about this system on dirt.  You would have to figure out how to keep things from clogging up with mud to keep the air flow going but if you were using Methanol for fuel that might help some.  The blue Av-Gas was nice but when you could get your hands on some of the Red stuff, that was the bomb.

[Brian Conn]

  Thanks for the explanation guys, much appreciated.
This all stems from something I saw back in '79 or '80....there were 2 or 3 dirt Late Models ...I want to say that they were '70 or '71 Camaros with stock sheet metal, the grills/ front bumpers were stock appearing, not the Black plastic Howe pieces of the era.
  What captured my attention was that the bottom of the front bumpers were aprox. 8 to 10 inches above the racing surface and that the height of the grill, above the top of the bumper, was around 6 inches.  The hoods had a raised section in the middle, it appeared that the bottom of the hood rested on top of the air cleaner and valve covers.  I could never quite figure out how a radiator would fit under the hood and not be scrapping the ground. 
  I am quite sure that I remember that they ran dry sumps as well.           

[Brian Conn]

...Last night I was rummaging thru one of my ASA Thunderbird kits....just happened to notice that the radiator is laid forward w/ no fan blade in the instructions....very similar to this build.

[Lefturns75]

Ahhh!  You have begun to learn, Grasshopper!

[Dr. Kerry]

Nice chassis work!!