I have a friend who is World Sales Director of Reynolds Chain - I've been trying to persuade him to sponsor me to build a chain drive hot rod. He retires next month so I guess I've missed my chance.
Thanks, guys. It's a Widgeon-Volkswagen. The first part comes from the two-seater Bertie Wooster drove in P.G. Wodehouse's books, a Widgeon Seven; the second part comes from all the mechanical bits being out of a VW Golf Mk1 (or Rabbit to many of you).
The 66 Oldsmobile Toranado was chain driven[engine to transmission] and I never heard of one failing and this was in a 4400# car with a 385 h.p. 425 cu engine which was upped to 455 cu in 68.
The grille did end up looking a bit like a later AA truck shell, but that wasn't the intention. I didn't want the wide, low proportion that the VW's horizontal U-flow radiator would give, so I incorporated an engine air inlet above it to produce an inverted-T shape, and then divided that into a tall shape flanked by two short shapes. All the time I was thinking about how to make the thing without too much sheetmetal wizardry. I did have the idea of incorporating the cooling system's overflow/reservoir tank in the top of the shell. As regards the door tops, that line had already been the standard way to handle sports-car doors for over a decade by the time Morgan began making four-wheelers in 1936.
I agree with everything you posted. I didn't say trailing arms were a preferred option. What I said was: "not as terrible as you would think, especially if body lean is minimized".
The Morgan +8 had a Rover V-8 engine. Some had a BMW V-8. Some U.S. models had a Vauxhall 4 cylinder running on propane.
The chain was very well oiled. That makes a lot of difference. In production cars chain problems were unusual. A version of that drivetrain was even used successfully in GMC motorhomes. Although reliable in those uses, the chain was a weak link(no pun). With performance modified engines the chain's limits could be exceeded.
I am kind of surprised it hasn't turned up on this thread yet, around '74-'76, there was an early teens t-speedster bodied hot rod with americans and a monacle windscreen that had a chain drive, it was pictured in a couple of the mags.
I very much agree to this. It also seems much easier to build I figured a Chevy 235 wouldn't be a bad powerplant for this project. They aren't that rare, and don't pull too serious horsepower or RPM to stress everything out. Any other suggestions? You guys are great!!!! Very in depth conversations! Vincent
Here is the chain drive of the Chater Lea.Formerly owned by Ade in England,now owned by Marc in Belgium.The Chater Lea is a small ,2 cylinder cyclcar.Marc pic...
If you just want to run a roller chain type drive but do not want the noise, oily mess from lubrication of the chain, try looking into a Gate's Poly chain drive. It was developed for Harley Davidson. It has better torque ratings and has a much smaller packge per HP rating than roller chain. Also you can run it at higher FPM were chain has a limiting factor.
It could absolutely be done. I helped dyno a Turbo Hyabusa Motorcycle the other night and it made 519 H.P. at the rear wheel. You can say bike and rider weight is only around 750 pounds, but that is with a single 530 chain. What about Nitro Harley's, wanna guess how much power and torque they make? Easily around 1200 or more. It would also be very possible to " enclose " the chain as well for safety and long life/lubrication. This was done on production motorcycles years ago. Both chains and modern machining technology has advanced light years since then. Lawyers keep these from being used in modern times on street driven vehicles, not technology or know how, TR.
Here is a chain drive from a DOHC Norton 500cc single engine running 14:1 on alcohol going to a 4 speed progressive Norton gearbox with no reverse to a independant rear suspension solid axle. Car is a Cooper Formula 3 from the early 50's. First thumbnail I'm unsure of the engine. Second thumbnail is a JAP 500 single. The 497-cc air-cooled single-banger gives the driver a good thump with each firing. Visible are its methanol fuel tank, hairpin valve springs and chain drive.
Funny thing. I'm sitting here full of turkey and trimmings browsing and reading this thread. I'm not sure why you want chain drive other than to be different. I went over to FB to see if a friend had returned a message. I saw this. No details or info. Just the photo. Again I don't understand why the person built it other than the fact that he could. Chain drive on the street for cars doesn't make any sense to me.
No reason you couldn't do it. Enclosing the chains will double their life, enclosed in an oil bath chain case extends life by a factor of 5. From an old industrial chain drive manual. Count Louis Zbrowski built a series of chain drive race cars on pre WW1 Mercedes chassis using WW1 surplus airplane engines. After they served their time on the race track he gave them fenders and headlights and drove them on the road, he drove one from England to Egypt. They were the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. The last (#4 ) was called the Higham Special. This was sold to another owner, who renamed it Babs. This is the car that cut the driver's head in half when the chain broke while attempting a world land speed record on Pendine Sands in Wales. The secret of long life and reliability was to boil the chains in a mixture of tallow and graphite, then hang them up to drip dry before reinstalling. There may be better brands of chain lube today.
You could buy a kit to extend your Model T frame, put sprockets on the axel, and run chain drive back to the solid tire wheels. Not sure I'd want to be following one, if a chain broke........... 4TTRUK
some one mentioned Mack Truck with chain drive, here's one. This is a 1925 Mack, located in Redmond Oregon
Given the zoomies, lack of license plate, etc. I wouldn't bet on the rear suspension (such as it is...) in that being anything you'd really want to DRIVE anywhere.
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