Tubbed FWD poseurs

stuart in mn wrote:

I thought that Grand Am in Hot Rod had been converted to RWD, like a lot of guys did with the Daytonas in the late 80's. I remember the big hub-ub about it's rear axle being solid mounted to the frame making it not really "streetable," and the "fix" being a rear suspension added with valve springs for suspension.

That was a different car, a Pontiac J2000. It had a tube chassis made of polished stainless steel and a dual supercharged engine with a big Dominator carburetor hung out in front. It was virtually undriveable. The Grand Am was totally stock except for the big tires and wheel tubs.

I have seen the J2000 in person. My dad bought his car hauler from Rick a few years back, and we flew into upstate NY to drive it back here. He may have also had the Grand Am there, but I didn't catch it. No Nova, though he did have a mid-80's Pontiac station wagon in mint condition in which he was thinking of putting a rear-mid mounted Northstar. I suggested two of em, with one up front, and his eyes lit up. Mr. Dobbertin, if you're reading, please contact me for my address so you can send those royalty checks.

I don't expect he'll be doing cars again any time soon. His time and funds seem pretty tied up in his HydroCar efforts, which are impressive.

Say what you will about the guy's taste, but he is a God among fabricators. His shop looks like a microchip assembly clean room, his welds are flawless, and the overall packages he puts together are so far beyond what a mere mortal could do. The J2000 is utterly stunning in its attention to detail and its overall over-the-topness. It's otherwordly, it's science fiction. You look at it and think, 'this couldn't have been created by the hands of a man.' He set out to build the ultimate ProStreeter - literally, in the sense that it would be the Zenith of the genre - and he did. Or should have, if the ProStreet crowd were a little more thoughtful and observant. I don't think there's anything that could be more ProStreet today than his J2k, and it was built over 20 years ago.

Young and dumb and impressionable will make one do such things; even worse if one has money to spend.

When in high school 35 years ago, I copped a free "Grumpy Jenkins" style Pro Stock hood scoop, and taped it to the hood of my 1.6 Pinto. I could barely see around the thing to drive, and only left it on a few days, but it drew a lot of attention during the time.

Hadn't thought about that for a long time... rightfully so; apparently I blocked it out!

stuart in mn wrote: It's nothing new...Rick Dobbertin built a faux Pro Street Grand Am back in 1988 that was featured in Hot Rod magazine. http://www.dobbertinhydrocar.com/Grand%20Am.htm

I remember a Pro Street Ford Temp in Hot Rod (in the 80's) that still had stock FWD and a tubbed rear. IIRC, it was sporting the stock 4-banger, too.

Ah, 80's Pro Street silliness.

ACarlson wrote:

stuart in mn wrote:

I thought that Grand Am in Hot Rod had been converted to RWD, like a lot of guys did with the Daytonas in the late 80's. I remember the big hub-ub about it's rear axle being solid mounted to the frame making it not really "streetable," and the "fix" being a rear suspension added with valve springs for suspension.

That was a different car, a Pontiac J2000. It had a tube chassis made of polished stainless steel and a dual supercharged engine with a big Dominator carburetor hung out in front. It was virtually undriveable. The Grand Am was totally stock except for the big tires and wheel tubs.

I have seen the J2000 in person. My dad bought his car hauler from Rick a few years back, and we flew into upstate NY to drive it back here. He may have also had the Grand Am there, but I didn't catch it. No Nova, though he did have a mid-80's Pontian station wagon in mint condition in which he was thinking of putting a rear-mid mounted Northstar. I suggested two of em, with one up front, and his eyes lit up. Mr. Dobbertin, if you're reading, please contact me for my address so you can send those royalty checks. I don't expect he'll be doing cars again any time soon. His time and funds seem pretty tied up in his HydroCar efforts, which are impressive. Say what you will about the guy's taste, but he is a God among fabricators. His shop looks like a microchip clean room, his welds are flawless, and the overall packages he puts together are so far beyond what a mere mortal could do. The J2000 is utterly stunning in its attention to detail and its overall over-the-topness. It's otherwordly, it's science fiction. You look at it and think, 'this couldn't have been created by the hands of a man.' He set out to build the ultimate ProStreeter - literally, in the sense that it would be the Zenith of the genre - and he did. Or should have, if the ProStreet crowd were a little more thoughtful and observant. I don't think there's anything that could be more ProStreet today than his J2k, and it was built over 20 years ago.

I remember the same hubbub about the lack of rear suspension. Still--it was a significant car. I think it was Testors that made a model kit of it.

Silly, but impressive. Also, the only time anyone cared about a J2000. The rest have faded from existence.

I think I remember seeing the J2000 in CC in the last year or two, didn't he go broke and get devorced in the process of building it?

Think that was a Revell model, but I could be wrong.

The HydroCar project is a huge money pit that he's trying to fill by the shovelfull. I hope he didn't get divorced, his wife was very nice. And tolerant.

I know his planned trip around the world in the Surface Orbiter (converted amphibious milk tanker) was cut short from lack of funds before even the halfway mark.

Looks like the HydroCar is coming along nicely. When I was there the sponsons were off and out of the shop and the whole body was built, but nothing else mocked up. His big engineering accomplishment for that week was the windshield wiper mechanism, which gives one a sense of the scope of this project. If you're building an amphibious vehicle, the likes of which the world has never before seen, and the windshield wipers take a week, you're in it for the long haul, buddy.

I bet he "gets some" with that bad machine!!!! Or, if it is a her, I bet the owner is blond! Yes I can crack blond jokes. I am blond.. . . Well I was until the gray started to take over. I guess this makes me legally grey, My kids call it senility. I call it selective memory.

What were we talking about anyway?

ACarlson wrote: Think that was a Revell model, but I could be wrong.

Looked it up. You're right.

I just seem to remember seeing it in a Testors cataolog. I guess 20 years blurred my memory.

Idea for a new magazine.

"Tubs"

We would allow only two types of cars in the mag.

1.) FWD cars that are tubbed (like the ones we are discussing here).

2.) Right Wheel Drive and AWD cars that are converted to FWD and then tubbed. Anyone make a FWD conversion kit for a 2005 Mustang yet?

Having a massively tubbed rear on a FWD vehicle - I think that it would go over well in San Francisco with the transvestites. They're not sure which part goes where either.

It strikes me that FWD drag cars would be a good candidate for air springs. At the strip you could jack up that rear and transfer the weight up front where it's needed, then soften it back up on the way home.

Ride height doesn't affect static weight distribution unless you can individually adjust each corner. If anything, you'd want to slam it in the back to lower the CG as far as possible to reduce dynamic weight transfer.