Drooooooolllllllllllllllll!

Rear engined 16 cylinder supercharged and as fast in a straight line as F1 cars are today. The Auto Unions were arguably the pinnacle of motor car development prior to WW2 - but they took an incredibly brave and talented driver to truly get the best performance from them.

I can't realy speak from a North American perspective, but succesful racing cars of the mid 1930's (we are talking more of 'factory' cars here, not 'specials' like mine) would have been considerably shorter than anything Packard built during this time. Reducing the wheelbase from 135" to 120" will give my car about the same proportions (wheelbase:track ratio) as the mid 30's European cars such as the Alfas, Bugattis and ERAs, but the overall dimensions are still much larger.

In one of my early posts I had a photo of the 1935 Alfa Romeo GP car. It had a wheel base of approx 108" so was still much shorter and narrower than what I am building. Of course the European cars were generally smaller in engine capacity but ran to higher RPMs, made extensive use of lightweight materials such as aluminium and magnesium and were built much lighter. I hesitate to say it here, given that I don't want to insult any of the wonderful people on this web site, but the European marques of the era were generally the result of far more refined engineering. I am well aware of people such as Col. Vincent and Miller - but they were exceptions in their time and the cars that the USA produced (then and for many years afterwards) did not show their influence as much as they might have.

This is one of the chief reasons that the history of cars such as the one I am working on in countries such as Argentina interests me so much. Argentina had a large population of emigrants from Europe (particularly from Italy) and many of their top engineers and technicians had learnt their trade with companies such as Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, et al. Given that they had access to so much machinery from the USA, there must have been some very interesting adaptations made in the name of building a faster race car!

If I was in a possition to help Gene, I certainly would do my best to do so - you show a great deal of understanding in what it takes to be the caretaker of a classic piece of machinery such as the 17.

The final decision is, of course, yours but I can't help but think that if it were me in your situation I would:-
1 Grab the car and what ever engine/parts you can get hold of - that's a bit of a no-brainer.
2 Assess exactly what you had and work out the options from there - much easier once it is all sitting in front of you.
3 Keep in mind that if you can find an engine - any engine - that will drop in with little alteration then you could do this and drive the car while making the rebuilding of the original engine an additional, longer term project.

So is there any reason that you might not be able to have your cake and eat it too?

A great video Gerd - but only 140mph out of a streamliner?.. I'm not sure they were trying hard enough LOL. Braver men than me, that is for sure!

Gene, I think you can rest easy with this one. seems to me you are doing it for all the right reasons and if Packard thought it was a good idea who are we to disagree? As you say we are not talking about concourse judging.

If it were me I would start by looking at universals, but I've been caught out by such things before. The fact that it only seems to happen under initial take off and then under heavier engine breaking makes it a little less likely in my mind - wouldn't a lose uni be a more constant noise? New rear mounts improved it...? Yes, could still be universal... but... mmmm! Output shaft? Gearbox bearings? Clutch centre? The universal would be the cheapest place to start for sure.

I once pulled out and stripped a gearbox and transfer case looking for a 'clunk' the ended up being in the rear diff, so don't trust anything I say! LOL

It has been a few weeks and still not much more done to the biposto. I must stop letting other things, like earning a living, get in the way of my hobbies! Seems to me that you either have the time to do something OR the money to do it - never both!

Anyway, I did get to spend a few hours in the shed this afternoon thanks to some unexpected rain which meant I couldn't wash the other car like I was meant to.

Spent most of the time today playing around with the spring hanger point set up on the front and have revised the original plan as the geometry just didn't want to play ball. Still reusing the old forged rear hangers, but have had to modify them further and use them in a different orientation to the original intention. There is still much to do to get this right including working the original cross tube back into the mix, but I am happy with the way I have been able to use the chassis off cuts to box the fronts in.

Also used the BBH (bloody big hammer) to separate the spring shackles and old front points from the front springs. Now I can take the springs to the local spring bloke as soon as I get a chance during the week to pick up the old 'spares' off the other Mats 34 which are sitting at Wades Workshop. Oh, and by the way, thanks for allowing the old springs to be donated to the cause Mat.

Worst part of today was that due to the amount of cutting and grinding today my workshop buddy Echo did not want to curl up and sleep under a shower of hot gringing sparks, so no photo of him this time. Although he was keeping a close eye on proceedings most of the afternoon.

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I often find it nessecary to signal other drivers on our roads here in Sydney - but it has nothing to do with turn signals and the signals I use are rarely polite... LOL

Excellent information though - I have been considering this issue for my own current project.

I would have thought that a mild steel bolt/stud would do as a plug. Sealed just like any other stud there would be no reason to expect it to leak and this means you can drill and tap it in the car yourself if you wish.

Although I would reiterate that if it's not leaking there is no need to risk further weakening of the block.

I might add that the concept of 'freeze cracks' is a little strange to us Aussies - not something I would have ever thought of! When it comes to overheating, however, we know a little more LOL

Solid engine and gearbox that are not as expensive for parts or rebuild as earlier models.

If you are up for a restoration project, the car as you have described sounds near perfect.