Projects Introducing the Roofus Special

Please bear with me...i'm swapping the pictures over to Flickr from Photobucket. It is going to be a bitch to do, but I'm sick of Photobucket

The idea of a boat-tailed speedster has been kicking around in the back of my head for a while now in various stages of design. I have actually been buying pieces and parts for a car without knowing exactly what I was going to build.

The original thought was something along the lines of the Stu Hilborn streamliner. A single seater would be cool but I think it would get pretty old riding solo for long distances.

It needed to be a two seater.

I think 20's and 30's Indy and Grand Prix cars are cool and would be the ultimate two seater. There ain't no way in hell that I could afford a real one of those though. But they can still be a source of inspiration for a car built out of cheap/almost free parts. (part of the challenge of the build)

Something kinda like this is the goal




With a little of this thrown in

 

I really wanna see progress pics when/if you do this.

 

The boat-tail is the dominant feature on one of these cars.

The source of the sheetmetal that will become the boat-tail is where this project gets its name.

A free 50's Cadillac roof! (and misc other parts)



The roof has had the support removed and been split down the middle.



Here is a mock up of one side. If you squint real hard you might see a boat-tail. The windshield ends will be at the rear of the car.

 

Well its gonna be sumthin soon enough..

 

The body structure is being built out of light weight 1x1 tubing.

Here is the shape of the passenger side sub-rail. Note: a couple of feet will be trimmed from the long straight section. It was placed there to eyeball the overall shape of the "car"

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Kool, is it gonna be a modern inline-4. Or a pre 1931 . Inline-4 ?

 

OOPS! I forgot to mention the donor car for drivetrain. A 1960 Jaguar MK2 that was purchased out of the HAMB classifieds for $1000

The Jag is donating its engine (3.4 liter inline 6), trans(4 speed w/ overdrive), radiator, driveshaft, rear axle, front spindles, 4 wheel disc brakes, gauges and knock-off wire wheels!

I think it was a killer buy. A Saturday afternoon of tinkering and we had the engine running perfectly.

I don't think I took a pic of the engine. Here is a similar one. This one happens to be a 1953 version that was also bought for a reasonable price. Complete engine and trans for $600.

 

DAMN! Now THAT'S a donor car. Awesome.

 

This... is gonna be good!!!

 

weber's, straight pipe'd, one seater jag. this is gonna be sccary fast mofo.....

 

Pardon my French but.... Fuck yeah!

 

No. Twin SU carbs, straight piped, two seater Jag. A yes, it should be stupid fast.

Webbers would make it faster, but the SU's have that 30's look (and they are already paid for ). This is a picture of the Offy that was in the Miller pictured above. Definetely cooler than the jag motor, but way out of my budget. The jag will be cool enough.

 

Really cool! I wondered where that Siloam Springs Jag went.

 

The Miller is also inspiration for the front suspension. I hope to be able to build similar air-foil shaped control arms. Mine are gonna be fabbed out of steel instead of cast aluminum like on the Miller. I plan on using the Jag spindles, hubs, and brakes.

 

Cool!
Looking forward to seeing this one come together

 

I like your Ideas! the "59" car is bad ass

 

wooden frame???, to keep it authentic???

 

Very cool. I'll be watching this one. I've been collecting parts for a couple of years to build something similar. I started with an idea for a modified but it's slowly morphing into something like your vision.

Frank

 

No. Steel.

The miller is steel also.

Curved c-channel frame rails with cool crossmembers. It had FWD, IFS and IRS in 1936 or whenever it was built. Quarter eliptic springs were hidden between the A-arms.

 

Have you seen this one? It belongs to my wife's cousin...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=2069

Slonaker

 

Hopefully it died for a good cause.

 

The 59 was on display at the Cinncinnatti car show a couple months back. Josh Shaw posted pics on the HAMB and I made the trip to see it in person. Well worth the drive. I snapped close to 100 pics of it alone!

The car is really narrow for a two seater. It is more like a one and a half seater. .....and the one part is too narrow for me.

 

That is the Andy Granatelli Miller.. Andy and his brother DROVE that car from Chicago to INDY for the race!

You did good making the trip to see it. Sooo many people walked right by it all weekend and had no Idea what it was. That car was more valuble than any other car there, and no one had a clue!

Once my Replica Sprint cars slow down a bit, I'm going to build a Two seater verson as well, and offer it. You are DEFINATLY looking at the right cars and on the right track.

Just a side note.. They only had the right side "A" arms for that car.. Zakira's (the shop that is doing the work) built the left side from sctatch, and then put it on the roof of there shop for three months of Ohio weather to age it. Worked pretty good!

I agree, the Granatelli Miller is a tight fit! Another two seater Miller you should be taking notes from is the "LAST GREAT MILLER"... The "FWD" Miller. It's got a lot of cool things to it, and might be more manageable with two people on a long trip..

I also HIGHLY recomend the book "The Last Great Miller". It's about the FWD cars, the last of the Miller Dynasty.. an unbelievable story of Engineering, design, defeat, and Triumph!!

Here is a few Shots of the FWD car that Zakira's restored and still owns.. It was the car built for the FWD truck company.
(there were two.. Harry Miller knew it would be the ultimate race car so he built himself one..)

...another side note.. The Original unrestored grill, and a pile of other parts for he second FWD car have been found and collected at Zakira's and the Restoration is coming!! I have pics of the Grille in my Computer somewhere but can't find them..

JD

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Borrowing from animal house, "This is going to be great!"

 

Glad to see your trailer load of sheet metal has found direction.Cool.

 

Have you thought about staggering the seats - i.e. have the riding mechanic's seat about six inches behind the driver's seat. This was done back in the day to give more shoulder and hip room.

 

Yep. A cool trick on those "Staggered seat" Racers is that with the rider being moved back 6-8 inches, they cut a hole in the upper left side of his seat, that way he could reach inside the rear of the body, behind the drivers seat back and grab a handle that they put inside there... Basicly the passenger has his arm around the driver, but its concealed in the body. This makes the shoulder fitting area even better, and would probably be pretty comfortable!

JD

 

The staggerd seat cars are cool, but most of them that I have seen done that way are long wheelbase cars. I am trying to keep the wheelbase on this one at 100 inches. As is, the drivers seat is going to be close to the rear axle (the inline 6 and deep bellhousing are taking up a bunch of room).

I didn't know the trick about the hole behind the driver's seat. I may have to re-think this car again.

EDIT: I now remember why I ruled out the staggered seat idea. The transmission and driveshaft! For staggerd seating to work right, the floor needs to be basicly flat. The jag rear end has a relatively high pinion which would put the floor of the car a foot in the air. That ride height and 15" wheels doesn't look right. My car needs to be small and low with the driveshaft running between the seats.

 

I look forward to seeing this one come together.

And yes - British car content makes this a "Special"!