Side mounted engine

[Zaltrennwagen]

A lot of effort has been put into side mounted engines over the years (the engine beside the driver) and because I have several Vintage engines (L6's) here i am thinking of building a chassis with the engine canted over or laying flat beside the driver.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?. i envisage the car will be around 2.5 mtr wheel base .
I was thinking of building a car to fit a sports car class using one of the many fibreglass bodies around form the 70's-80's . .Also,it wont be built to go around corners ,the emphasis being on straight line performance with a simple straight front axle,live rear end and possibly air suspension for it's simplicity and infinitely variable spring rate .
I have the engines,suspension etc but at present i am just starting a road car project for 2012 so it's going to take a little while.

I was thinking of somethng like this ...initially...ha ha
http://greyfalcon.us/Mercedes%20T80.htm
but this was also an inspiration

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[ROSS BROWN]

Beautifully Stylied cars Zalt
You will need to be mindfull of rule 3.E
Cars with front engines shall have the rear of the flywheel housing forward of the drivers knees.........

READING BETWEEN THE LINES...........
So I'm assuming that the next rear would position of the motor would be " shall have the front of the flywheel housing rear of the drivers seat lateral bar and be placed in such away as not to become a intrusive of the seat belts and mounts if the flywheel did decide to leave home

[Zaltrennwagen]

Thats what i was thinking. The engines are long so the flywheel and trans will in a plane behind the rear of the seat. if i mount the engine beside me ,there is plenty of room to go forward in the driving position. I've seen three different cars go up with blown flywheels. It happens in a microsecond and one was even cut in half. i have no desire to be in the way of a peice of flying aluminium flywheel. .

[Rob]

Love those early streamlined vehicles, they could do with some shrinking though.

I've seen one boat and one street car after the flywheel bolts sheered, neither was pleasant though both drivers escaped injury.

Zalt,

No alloy flywheels on the lake, don't ask me the rule number but it's in there.

Cheers,
Rob

[grumm441]

Love those early streamlined vehicles, they could do with some shrinking though.

I've seen one boat and one street car after the flywheel bolts sheered, neither was pleasant though both drivers escaped injury.

Zalt,

No alloy flywheels on the lake, don't ask me the rule number but it's in there.

Cheers,
Rob

That would be 3.0 in the SCTA book or 4.5.10 in the DLRA book

[Zaltrennwagen]

My rule book was printed in 1997 so I need a new one but after perusing the IMSA supermodified rules ( they have sidemounted BBC's) I have been thinking of not running a flywheel at all. A shaft connected to a clutch device on a transaxle will allow me to sit the engine further forward because I wont be in the plane of spinning flywheel. The IMSA rues call for a titanium or steel shaft,no alloy shafts.
Does that sound right?


. The later Corvettes have the flywheel mounted on the transaxle,as did Ferrari Daytonas too I think.
It's no big deal to make a new steel flywheel though,and i would probably only need a wheel to hold a ring gear to make engine starting easier.
The flywheels I saw explode were just factory items and one was in an altered dragster .... it sent shrapnel into the crowd and some of that shrapnel was the rear of the block and parts of the pressed steel scatter shield.
i was discussing my engines with a neighbor and he has almost finished a project for a US customer with a canted over engine of the same type . He was fortunate enough to find a factory sump to do this but it looks like I may lay mine down flat because the sumps are gold plated. A dry sump would allow me to run this easily .
just a pic of a design competition entry by a US Airforce engineer ... and nothing like i am thinking of.