First Step of the New Project

[Noxnabaker]

Aha, thanx Dan, that makes sense!

Josephine is almost out on the road now, almost...
I ran into problem trying to prime her by turning the oilpump with drillmashine (done it before without problem), strange; I could easily turn the engine on the crank-bolt in front but by the distributer-slot it was to hard...
Now then, I still have to make the exhaust system & since I want those old-fasioned cut-outs that comes out just behind the front wheels I've run into some difficulties but that'll be fixed soon I hope:
I have most piping but not the Y's & mufflers & I'll probably have to rebuild/move the gearbox balk; the torqueflite has overdrive & two different fastening points, I've used the front one so far but I wanna have the silencers as far front as possible because these small blocks have a resonance around 70 km/h (with "normal" gearing, but I have the best high-speed gearing & o.d. so it'll be even higher then) if the mufflers are a bit back...
But I hope it's gonna be fixed soon so I can slide around in the snow & surprise people & give'em a SMILE!

I sure envy your garage, I'm in our barn without heating & earth "floor", but it works.
On the other hand I'm not sick so complaining aint much use!
& it's been + 6-8 celsius for 3 days now...

LOVE your pictures too!!!

[SilverHawkDan]

Ready for Tom to start work on the frame modifications. My grandson and his cousin Norma got he bellhosing modified and drilled and tapped four new holes so the Richmond 5 speed could be bolted to the Studebaker bell housing I had sitting around. With the bell housing and transmission bolted to a 289 I just removed from my Hawk frame we set them in the 55 President frame so that on Sunday Tom can start the process of modifying the frame for a straight axle conversion. Progress for sure. More as it happens.

[S2Deluxe]

Ready for Tom to start work on the frame modifications. My grandson and his cousin Norma got he bellhosing modified and drilled and tapped four new holes so the Richmond 5 speed could be bolted to the Studebaker bell housing I had sitting around. With the bell housing and transmission bolted to a 289 I just removed from my Hawk frame we set them in the 55 President frame so that on Sunday Tom can start the process of modifying the frame for a straight axle conversion. Progress for sure. More as it happens.

Dan, I don't know if I'm alone here or not, but I for one am not overly familiar with the advantages of doing a straight axle conversion? That's a major deviation from factory original. Well within your capability I'm sure! I just dont know how significant, in comparison, the benefits may be? It seems to be popular in some, flat, straight line, racing events. Is it for weight reduction, potential castor adjustment capability, or something more, and how much improvement do you hope it will actually achieve?

Mark

[SilverHawkDan]

Mark,

There are several reasons. One is the ability to get the car really low in front without having to make major changes to the A arms. Second is as you mentioned the fact that we run 17 degrees of castor to keep the car going straight at over 175 mph. There is a weight reduction but we offset that by filling the axle tube with weight. We really don't want to make the front end any lighter. Another reason is the fact that we limit our suspension travel to 1 to 2 inches so much easier to do with a straight axle. Everyone I have talked to never regretted going to a straight axle. Most ran their car with stock suspension and after having a variety of issues switched it out. So I am going with experience and making the switch now. We are building this car to run and certify at 250 mph. Not that we have any immediate plans to go that fast but it is easier to build for 250 and run 200 then build for 200 and later try to upgrade to a 250 certification. Hope this helps.
Dan

[JRoberts]

I may have missed this earlier somewhere, but what class is the car going to run in?

[SilverHawkDan]

SCTA "Classic Factory Production Supercharged". Current "D" engine record holder Dave Bloomberg with an Avanti and the "E" engine record Dave Livesay with an Avanti.

[SilverHawkDan]

Tom and his son Riley made it up today and had a very productive meeting with Andy who is our project engineer. Lots of things worked out and things on the project are firming up. Tom and Riley got the rest of the trim removed and the headliner too. So now it is ready to go to the media blaster guy. Once the body is off I will set things up for Tom so that when he is off work on two weeks he can swap out the front clip and figure out the axle drop needed so it can be ordered.

More as it happens.
Dan

[SilverHawkDan]

Andy and I got the new design mount made for the hoist for the gantry crane. Still not right but it works and is better than the other design.
We were able to get the body lifted off the frame and set on the floor on blocks. So the body is ready to go to the media blaster guy.


The frame is ready for Tom the change out the front clip.


Progress.
Dan

[t walgamuth]

Seems like adding the extra weight in the frame instead of the axle would improve handling and traction....?

[SilverHawkDan]

Yes, you are right adding weight to the frame will help traction and so thereby handling at speed. Building a car for land speed racing is so different than the drag racing and road racing cars I have build in the past. You really have to think differently than with any other racing venue. I actually have it easy with this build as we are only looking to go just over 200 miles per hour so we build for 250 mph. So much easier than building a 300+ mph car. More as it happens.
Dan

[SilverHawkDan]

So Robin finally saw the sign so now I can post it. To thank Robin for sponsoring our race car project with the use of his shop I had Andy Houlbeck with Signs by Andy make a cool wood sign. If you need a wood sign made he is the guy. He is also one of our team members. So Robin and I were working in the shop on Thursday and he looked up and saw the sign and he was very impressed. I am glad it made his day.

[SilverHawkDan]

Is there someone here who can tell me how to rename this forum? Now that we have settled on a Packard Hawk I would like to change the name to something reflecting that.

[Noxnabaker]

I'm never out of wordly ideas, always have way to many for my own world...
So if it was, not that is is thou, up to me to rename it would be:
"PackardRacerHawk thread".

[Commander Eddie]

Dan,
Go to your first post and click on "Edit Post". Then click on "Go Advanced". You can edit the title there.

[DougHolverson]

I'm sort of partial to renaming this thread to Floobly J. McKnubbnubb, Junior Ph.D.