PM sent Bruce
PM sent Bruce
Thanks 'oldfart' Reply sent.
Today, the rear axle. It was T/A rules that the cars had to have the rear axle from the cars manufacturer, no such thing as 9" Fords in GM cars, even though the Pontiac team got away with running Z/28 302 Chevrolet engines. A Pontiac axle was a must.
Most of the Pontiac division used a 10 bolt similar to the Chev, but a bit stronger. For racing they had to step up to meet the demands of what was 3, 4, or even 12 hour races. The Pontiac engineers took the very heavy duty centre section from the big A body cars, the 455 cubic inch powered station wagons etc, and mated that to the Firebird/Tempest etc axle tubes, creating a hybrid just for these T/A car. The centre section is a 12 bolt, 31 spline limited slip affair, but with the usual 10 bolt rear cover.
The magazine articles from 69 show one of these rear axles, complete with an added box for extra oil capacity, along with two copper tubes that pass through that box, effectively making a crude cooler. They were not allowed external coolers and pumps until later.
When I bought the Firebird it had a 9" Australian taxi axle, but I did get all 4 of the special Corvette J-56 Heavy Duty race calipers and rotors. The rear axle had long gone.
Fast forward nearly 25 years, and I am told that a friend of a friend has a Pontiac axle for sale, said to have come out of this Firebird.
It didn't take long to see it was the absolute right part, and possibly one of the last, if not the very last of these special axles to exist anywhere (Pontiac rear axles are usually very low demand) Anyway, some money changed hands and the piece that had sat in a wood shed for over 2 decades was back with the car. It has the axles, the same rear cover as in the magazine, the caliper mounts milled from blocks of steel, and only needed new 'pyramids' for the frame mounted Watt linkage.
One more piece for the puzzle.
Bruce.
Awesome effort Bruce! I'm amazed that you were able to reunite the car with its diff. What are the chances! This has been such an incredible restoration, and your drive to gain complete correctness as much as is possible really makes it a stand-out. Old race cars have a sort of aura about them, and that aura is easily lost on many restorations which often tend to lose the true character of the car and its various owners and racing history, but you've been able to retain it, which is a huge success in itself. Other than the beautiful new paint inside and out, this really feels like Rod Coppins has just jumped out of it.
Cheers Steve, The original parts are very important to me, each one has some story to tell, and they all go to make up the big picture.
The Watt linkage has a real neat centre, cut from an alu block, which in itself is not unusual, but the pivot could well have been a greased bush, or even nylon like the spring eye bushes, but it is a ball bearing with a flanged outer. I took it to the bearing shop and the number came up as "Special Order" from the factory. I don't know if it was unique to these race cars, I doubt it, but where they were being built was very close to the Southern California aero industry, and they (the car builders) would often go and see what trick items they could obtain. There were supposed top be essentially production cars, but it's all in the detail. So it could be some part of an ordinary old aircraft.
Here is a pic of the centre pivot and bearing, with the bearing cover, held on by 6 drilled head, nyloced nuts. It does not want to come loose. The system had some downfalls in that the rear roll centre was not constant, but the T/G cars were regarded as good handlers none the less.
These are the rear spring eye bushes, alu with a steel insert, and a nylon sleeve between them, just like the front A arms (and incidentally the brake and pedal bushes which is probably where they got the idea)
Each bush is numbered, starting at the front of the car and working back, if you pick up any bush you know which car, and which position. No doubt when they were working on several cars at once the parts could have been easily mixed up.
Bruce.
Last edited by Bruce302; 12-03-2015 at 06:16 PM. Reason: spelling
Time for a pic. This is the car Ron Grable had it at the January 1972 GP meeting at Pukekohe.
The colour scheme possibly inspired by the Trans Am Javelins. The car was prepared by Ross Phillips in a shed on the Tauranga wharf, there was just two weeks between the time it arrived in Auckland in mid December 1971, and the New Years Eve meet at Bay Park.
Photo by Jack Inwood, copy write Bruce McLaren Trust.
Bruce, I just love this photo! The clarity is amazing. I'd say almost certainly the colour scheme was Javelin inspired, as originally dreamt up by Jim Jeffords. Do you happen to know what colour the Firebird was before it had its NZ war paint applied? Eg, was it white and they added the blue front and red back? Or was the whole paint scheme put down over the top of what was already there? When you stripped the car, were you able to see what other colours were in there?
I don"t know what kind of camera Jack Inwwood had but i Bought quite a few photos from him in the mid 60s. A few of them in 20x16 and a lot of smaller ones. I till have them all. The earliest one I have is of Fahey in the Lotus Cortina with Bob Jane in the Jag right behind . Whatever camera he used it was allways top of the line,and yes Steve I still have them all but I guess we can't post these on the site?
Think it was blue Steve, got photo of before it came out here somewhere (with a bent nose and side) will look.
Rod, I'd really love to see that photo if you're able to find it.
Originally Posted by hilstwist
Surely you'd be within your rights to post them here if you give an acknowledgement. After all, there's really no plagiarism going on if you've already paid for them in the first place. PLUS, we wanna see 'em !!
To second Steve, I too would really enjoy seeing this photo of the Coppins Pontiac before it arrived in New Zealand.
Found Photo, sorry it was white with red stripes down sides, it had a bit of a tangle and was repaired and painted for trip. got to work out how to change photo format.
Last edited by Rod Grimwood; 09-15-2012 at 12:01 AM.
Rod, email it to me and I can change the format: enquiries@monsterracewear.co.nz
I met up with Robin Tanner today, He raced the Firebird after Rod had his last race in Australia in 1974. One of the pics he gifted to me was this engine bay shot. Often so hard to find, and this one is greatly appreciated.
A quality shot, makes it easier to get the details right when you get gifted a photo like this. Excellent addition to the slide show Bruce. Great to see Robin has kept this for all those years.
From what I can recall Jack Inwood used a Hasselblad Medium format camera in the early days of his Motorsport photography. The negative size was much larger than a 35mm camera therefore the clarity was excellent - but you only got 12 frames on a film. The later years he used a Nikon 35mm camera, but he had stepped back a bit from the motorsport stuff by then.
All his circuit racing negatives have been scanned by the McLaren Trust and are available for purchase in digital or print format I'm told. Unfortunately they haven't got his rally photos at this stage - perhaps they may turn up one day.
He took some great stuff of early NZ rallying especially at night using multiple flash setups. He also setup a sign on the road before the corner he was on telling drivers to smile as they were about to be flashed!
Robin has kept some very interesting paperwork and photos that he has very generously gifted to me. He was offered good money some years ago but decided to wait until the car surfaced again. He had some great stories to tell too, some that are best not made public.
BMCBoy- I know who got the collection off Jacks estate, do you want me to pm you with the details?
That would be great thanks
Just sent it now.
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