posted 09-03-2009 09:02 PM                  

...I was attending a computer programming shool in Indy that summer and our teacher was a car nut like most of the young guys in his class...he drove a red 65 Vette to school every nice day and an ugly light metallic green 67/68 Corvair on the bad days

...mid way thru the classes that summer he sold the Vette to raise funds to do a mid-engine conversion to his Corvair...he purchased a frame kit from a company a few blocks from our school and had the Corvair transformed into a mid-engined 396/375 SUPER Corvair...it was still the same ugly green and he even kept the white walls and hub caps to retain the sleeper look

...I was fortunate enough to get a ride in the car one day while taking our programs to test at Blocks warehouse on 16th street in Indy...we raced a 69 428 Mach 1 Mustang at a light and beat him so bad he wouldn't even pull up beside us at the next light...he had a WTF look on his face...the Corvair was relatively quiet and with the engine planted on top of the rear wheels, traction was fantastic...quite a ride that day...not sure how many Corvairs were transformed into a V8 terror, but the pix here are the first ones I have ever seen other than the one I rode in 40 years ago..

ps...the one my teacher owned had a fiberglass cover that hid the engine completely....his big joke was to pull into a gas station and ask them to check the oil...rookies would open the hood, oops, no engine, it's in the rear...so they open the trunk and oops, no engine...WTF was rumbling...you shoulda seen the looks on the gas jockeys faces wondering where the engine was

posted 09-03-2009 09:41 PM                  

The Kelmark Kit flips the transaxle 180 degrees end to end so the bell housing flange faces forward instead of backwards, then an adapter is used to mount it to the engine.
The plus to this design is that it gives you enough room to maintain stock style seats and you have plenty of leg room and almost a 50/50 front to rear weight ratio.
The down side is that the ring and pinion rotate backwards causing accelerated wear on the gears.
The car pictured appears to have the Kelmark kit.

There was also a Crown Kit which kept the transaxle in it's stock position. This moved the engine forward 11 inches as compared to the Kelmark Kit.
The plus to this design is that the drive train can withstand more "use".
The down side is that you typically needed to utilize fiberglass bucket seats or the available engine cover with the seats molded into it. If you were tall, leg room was difficult to find.

There was also a Toronado conversion that used the old big front wheel drive engine and trans axle as a unit. This put more of the weight on the rear of the car than the Kelmark or Crown Kits and was much more dependable.

There were also other options such as Front engine conversions and Kelmark also offered an adapter to put a 215 Olds Aluminum V8 in place of the stock motor, you needed to then install a reverse cam, water pump etc... and the new engine did not weigh that much more than the stock engine. I have known people with all of these type vehicles except the Toronado conversion.

If anyone is interested....I have a new old stock un-used Crown Kit with the sub frame and conversion parts for the transaxle and shift linkage. I was thinking of building a 4.3 V6 Mid engine Corvair with this kit as it would offer the durability of that kit and would have almost as much leg room as the Kelmark conversion. Then I bought a Prowler and those plans disappeared.

I also have an absolutely rust free 1965 Corvair Monza Coupe but it is way to nice to cut up for this.

I had at one time considered using a Fiero transaxle and engine, sub-frame and all as a unit. Some people have built these cars with the ZF transaxle, or an Audi transaxle.

Another option these days would be to use a Prowler transaxle and if it would bolt up, use the 3.5 as well. This would afford you a great package, dependability, auto stick, leg room and weight distribution.

In short (LOL) Yes I have seen such a car.

I attempted to upload a photo of my old V8 Corvair to this reply but was unable to so I posted it in my scrapbook. It was the only photo I could put my hands on at a moment's notice so there are other cars in the picture including my old COPO Camaro.

Here is a Web site for these cars http://v8vairs.com/

posted 09-03-2009 10:17 PM                  

quote:

---

Originally posted by alrtg:
Yes, I had a Kelmark Mid Engine V8 Corvair for sixteen years.

The Kelmark Kit flips the transaxle 180 degrees end to end so the bell housing flange faces forward instead of backwards, then an adapter is used to mount it to the engine.
The plus to this design is that it gives you enough room to maintain stock style seats and you have plenty of leg room and almost a 50/50 front to rear weight ratio.
The down side is that the ring and pinion rotate backwards causing accelerated wear on the gears.
The car pictured appears to have the Kelmark kit.

There was also a Crown Kit which kept the transaxle in it's stock position. This moved the engine forward 11 inches as compared to the Kelmark Kit.
The plus to this design is that the drive train can withstand more "use".
The down side is that you typically needed to utilize fiberglass bucket seats or the available engine cover with the seats molded into it. If you were tall, leg room was difficult to find.

There was also a Toronado conversion that used the old big front wheel drive engine and trans axle as a unit. This put more of the weight on the rear of the car than the Kelmark or Crown Kits and was much more dependable.

There were also other options such as Front engine conversions and Kelmark also offered an adapter to put a 215 Olds Aluminum V8 in place of the stock motor, you needed to then install a reverse cam, water pump etc... and the new engine did not weigh that much more than the stock engine. I have known people with all of these type vehicles except the Toronado conversion.

If anyone is interested....I have a new old stock un-used Crown Kit with the sub frame and conversion parts for the transaxle and shift linkage. I was thinking of building a 4.3 V6 Mid engine Corvair with this kit as it would offer the durability of that kit and would have almost as much leg room as the Kelmark conversion. Then I bought a Prowler and those plans disappeared.

I also have an absolutely rust free 1965 Corvair Monza Coupe but it is way to nice to cut up for this.

I had at one time considered using a Fiero transaxle and engine, sub-frame and all as a unit. Some people have built these cars with the ZF transaxle, or an Audi transaxle.

Another option these days would be to use a Prowler transaxle and if it would bolt up, use the 3.5 as well. This would afford you a great package, dependability, auto stick, leg room and weight distribution.

In short (LOL) Yes I have seen such a car.

Here is a Web site for these cars http://v8vairs.com/

---

...small world, ain't it

...the one my teacher owned had the molded in fiberglass seats/engine cover, kinda looked like a small toilet seat...not very comfortable at all, he kept a small pillow on his

...I wish I knew/remembered more details about his Corvair, but it's been a long time...the dealer at the time was a Dune Buggy builder/parts supplier on N. Meridian St. in Indy, no doubt long time gone...I never saw the SUPER Corvair again after that summer

...after testing our programs on Sundays, we would drag race in the Blocks parking lot, I owned a SS396/375 Chevelle and there was a 440 69 Charger....the little Corvair made us both look like pedal cars

posted 09-03-2009 10:24 PM                  

The car was a lot of fun and at times a lot of work too.

The guy at least had a warning as my tags read : MID ENG