BritishV8 Forum

Excellent!

Mission accomplished!

The Roadmaster (and Curtis) arrived in my driveway about an hour ago, both safe and sound. Curtis still has a grin on his face.

More good news!

That was indeed a great weekend for the project. Great to get some enthusiastic press. Glad Curtis had a good time with the car. Any ideas yet on how we're going to get the car to Palestine next month since Jim and Dan can't make it? Lookiing for a volunteer in that part of the country guys.

Money report:  BADASS has $375.57.  
This is after the new starter and oil line Curtis and I installed.

Steve

The Roadmaster made a hit at the NSRA Nationals south today. That's Jim Watson on the far right. Jim drove the car to the show, and will be taking it to Texas for the V8 meet. Both it and my car drew a large crowd all day long.

That's fantastic news Dan! I hope you can make it too. Sounds to me like a real good recipe for a road trip if you and Jim can come down together.

I've been doing some analysis on the Roadmaster's suspension and thanks to the MG purists (see, they are useful for something after all) and to the guys on the irsforum, I have now determined  that essentially, the roll axis inclination of the Roadmaster is maybe half what it is in the typical MGB. The purists explained to me that the front roll center is at ground level. The rear roll center is either at the axle centerline, or I suspect more accurately located at the intersection of a line from the front spring hanger mount to the rear shackle mount, where that line intersects the vertical plane of the axle. Without exact numbers that should be around 8 to 12 inches above the ground. We could calculate the angle easily enough using the car's wheelbase if we nailed down that number.

One of the IRSforum guys did a quick diagram of his Mustang conversion and came up with a roll center about 5 inches above the ground. I'm not sure how much he narrowed the Jag IRS but we only narrowed ours 5-1/4 inches so they should be pretty comparable. So the practical result is that by fitting the Jag IRS to the car we reduced the roll axis inclination to maybe half of what it was before and got the rear roll center closer to what the front is. I still haven't got it clear in my head exactly what the end result of this is yet. My impression is that it is a good thing, but I'm still struggling a little bit with why. It seems that the conventional wisdom is that it allows more weight transfer to the outside tire in a corner but I'm still not real clear on why this is a good thing.

But this is just a footnote. The BIG news is Jim Watson bringing the car to Palesteen. For those of you who do not remember, Jim has been helping the build efforts by selling Roadmaster T-shirts in the Townsend area and is an enthusiastic supporter.

Jim

Bob Bolles at Circle Track magazine has been gonzo about roll center for years.  If you want to look at that more in depth you should check through his articles.

also, I think this month's Circle Track has a new shock / bump stop arrangement which is supposed to have significantly more consistent spring rate in the bump stop than traditional BBSS suspension setups.  you might find that interesting.

http://www.circletrack.com/techarticles/front_roll_center_location_chassis_measurements/index.html

Maybe we can get Larry Shimp, to weigh-in on this ? I musta bin sleepin in my suspension design class, back in the day. VW bug used upper/lower trailing arms, in the front,(roll center at ground zero), to dynamically transfer weight at the front, to get some traction. How do you get a SLA front suspension to have the roll center at ground level ? And what about the CG acting upon the RC ? I haven't seen such a design,(sleeping) ? I was never good in geometry either/lol. roverman.

I'm finally home for a few days... and a moment ago I had occasion to actually look at the program from The Mitty. The official program was given out - free - to everyone who attended. It's a neat magazine-size, full-color deal. Guess what! Roadmaster appears on page 34. It's part of a photo essay titled "Famous Machines: The Mitty Again Attracts a Stacked Paddock". Here's a scan:

QuoteBig-Block MGB GT

V6-powered MGBs? That's childs play. How about one powered by a 455-cubic-inch Buick V8? The genesis of this one took place in a Terre Haute bar in 2005, and the project was a group effort. The car is collectively owned by the British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society, a team that goes by the appropriate acronym: B.A.D.A.S.S.

I knew that was coming.

Tim Studdard and crew was impressed with the Roadmaster....hence it being given some "preferential" treatment and priviledges during the Mitty.

That's great!!

"The genesis of this one took place in a Terre Haute bar in 2005"
Seven years ago huh? My how time flies. How did we get from there to here on January 31st, 2007?
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?120633-Engine-size-amp-weight&highlight=mgb+big+block
Then here where I stuck my foot in my mouth:
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?40,538455,538455#msg-538455
and here:
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?126109-Big-Block-MGB

Not to be critical, and any press is good press, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't at that bar in '05. Not that my memory is the best mind you. I guess I should get used to it, I know I'm far too particular about the details. It's just that... I'd like to know who to thank for the idea.

Jim

I don't think I've ever been in a bar with Jim, prefered to just sit around the breakfast table in Rick's house to consume our beverages. And I was sort of there at the beginning as well, one of the first people to encourage Jim to venture forth on the project. Anyway, good article for the project.

Made an electrical upgrade today. The 30 amp fuse for the electrical fans blew twice last weekend, so Jim Watson and I added another relay circuit so we could split the two fans into two seperate 20 amp circuits. Should have no more problem with blown fuses. If one blows, the other will still work.

We also rerouted the electrical choke lead to make it a bit neater and to elminate the fuse tap.

I will be redrawing the electrical diagrams to reflect the actual installation, so I need to know what, if any, changes were made to the wiring from what was shown in the AAW manual. For instance, there are two in-line fuses under the hood that seem to lead to a small "black box" in the same area - what's that for and where does it connect? I assume the MSD boxes are wired per the MSD instructions, but I need to know the details, such as where power was taken from, etc.

Dan, I think maybe there is a wiring diagram in the pocket behind the passenger's seat, and I think I updated it with the ignition circuitry, not sure if the other stuff is in there or not. Max may have to help out on this.

Jim

Yep, there was plenty of encouraging going on (throw some more gas on the fire), especially over on the Buick V8 website.  I like to think I helped a wee bit to kick Jim off the fence he was tettering on.  


Jim Blackwood  Posted: April 06, 2007 11:05AM

It'll work, I swear to God! I just was eyeballing and measuring a 430 Buick engine and comparing it to my 215 install, and there is room! ........ *SOMEBODY* seriously needs to do this one. In fact I'd do it myself if I had a suitable car for it.


Carl Floyd  Posted: April 06, 2007 11:02PM

I think you have a great idea, Jim. I would love to see this concept car happen.

To get the ball rolling, I have a spare T-5 to donate for this project.

Hey all:

Good news, all around!   Glad Curtis had fun, and GREAT news that Jim Watson is going to the V8 meet AND bringing the Roadmaster to boot!   Cool beans...

RE:  Dan's (Masters) questions:  those are the wiring bits for the HDI headlights (I presume-- rumour has it Jim moved them, so maybe I'm wrong here?).  IF they have RED wires to inline 20A modern fuses, yes those are them.   Because of them, Dan, only ONE of the U/W and U/R wires is used for the headlights as a system.   (Others are cut back, taped off, up in the passenger area-- they could be spliced and put back into service for "normal" lights in the future if need be.)  

There is also the compressor wired in, but that was moved too, I think.  (There is the ONLY brown wire in the car-- or there was-- feeding power to it, and the dash switch is ground-switched.  I think wire code is R/W and black/green(?) for the ground.   Might be black/purple?  Pretty sure Jim moved it to the back of the car, so codes are a moot point, likely.)

Tim Duhamel tried to keep track of the changes, but truthfully there weren't many.   We didn't use any of the master power wires or remote... so those are bundled up extra in the passenger area.    We did make a seperate dash harness with 3 plastic plugs so that the dash could be removed with limited unwiring.. It had some form of logic to it-- all the indicator bulb wires shared a plug, for instance...

Otherwise, it's as per diagram.  :-)   (3 of us did the damn thing in one weekend.   No time to get fancy!    )


RE:  "a bar in Terra Haute in 2005".   Uhm.... I think you can maybe blame that one on ME, Jim!   While the car was here, *someone* (honestly, forget WHO...) asked a little about the car.   I was NOT at Terre Haute, but knew the project had gotten off the ground there, so that was my "whimsical" way of explaining to the questioner how such a project comes about....  (At the time, seemed a simple enough explanation to appease him.   I didn't think I was going to be QUOTED!)  

So, yeah.... maybe My Bad on that one.  The wording there is just eerily familiar!   (Actually, I think I'd said it was a 'bar bet".   :-p  )

Cheers,

M

So,... what you're saying Max, if I read it right, is that like most great ideas it occurred almost simultaneously to many people in many places? The time was just ripe for it. And while that is doubtlessly true, yet it still remains that WE took the initiative and made it happen, "Just because we could." And in doing so we imprinted it with our own unique style.

Jim

It's just occurred to me what "MGB" is an acronym for.  So blindingly obvious ...

Took the Roadmaster to the British Car Gathering in Townsend today. Got lots of interest. That's Carl Floyds car in the background.

Noted an interesting electrical glitch today: when the hazard switch is on, with the key off, the gauges come on and pulse with the blinkers - that should be fun to track down!  Hope I can find time to trace the cause before it leaves here next weekend. If not, I'll get it when it gets back.

For a while now I've been trying to define an adequate description of the Road Master.
Seeing it beside Dans car brings to mind visions of  a predator or a hunter. The car just seems so full. As if there is no room for anything else that won't facilitate a kill.
Dan's car is well thought out and elegant. The Road Master just wants to eat something and spit it out whole.
Two great cars that represent our hobby very well.
Cheers
Fred

They do make a gorgeous pair, don't they? Wouldn't it be great if we could get both of them together with Terry's GT for a photo op? Now that would be a picture worthy of any magazine spread.

Jim

There ya go Jim.  Buick 215 example right behind the Buick 455 on the same show field. Yer welcome.  

QuoteThink about it, the MGB-V8 started with the smallest Buick V8 engine ever made. It just won't be complete until it has been done with the largest Buick V8 engine, now will it?