[Shinanigins XD]

Just curious; does anyone know of someone who did a drivetrain conversion, not to a standard transmission-driveshaft-rear end, but to a C5-C6 torque tube and trans-axle? I dunno, but I got the idea this morning and just thought it would be something neat and different, while still retaining the whole Torquetube-transaxle setup we all know and love haha.

Food for thought

[Transporter]

Originally Posted by Shinanigins XD

Just curious; does anyone know of someone who did a drivetrain conversion, not to a standard transmission-driveshaft-rear end, but to a C5-C6 torque tube and trans-axle? I dunno, but I got the idea this morning and just thought it would be something neat and different, while still retaining the whole Torquetube-transaxle setup we all know and love haha.

Food for thought

A lot of people have considered this, I know that at least two are already done and I know of one that is in the works.

If you look though the Norwalk show pics there is a very nice black 63 all lowered with big wheels 18/20's?

Car has Corvette suspension and drivetrain.

[Poncho-V]

That is exactly what I envisioned for the black Tempest, Stan. C6 transaxle and Pontiac engine.

[Shinanigins XD]

Originally Posted by Poncho-V

That is exactly what I envisioned for the black Tempest, Stan. C6 transaxle and Pontiac engine.

Can you make one of those setups fit a pontiac v8?

[Transporter]

Originally Posted by Shinanigins XD

Can you make one of those setups fit a pontiac v8?

You can make anything work, what would it cost? I would imagine that you would of course have to redrill a Pontiac flywheel to mate to the Corvette shaft.

I would think that a guy could either adapt the Corvette bell to the Pontiac engine, Or use an old Tempest bell and mod it to bolt to the Corvette torque tube.

I really would not think it to be that hard either way. BUT that is JMO, you never know until you do it!

[Poncho-V]

There would definitely be fab work involved. My black car is a 3sp. manual car and I could just see it with a more durable/reliable 6sp. manual from the Corvette. I have crawled under a friend's C6 and measured the rear track and torque tube length.

[Transporter]

I am pretty sure that you would have to lengthen the torque tube and shaft as the Tempest is a 112 WB car and the Corvettes run from 105 to 106 WB.

So basically you would either have to set the motor in the tempest back about 7" (that would be pushing it as my Gasser is back 8" an I am well into the firewall/passenger comp.)

Or, you could move the rear wheelhouse forward, ala altered A/FX, but I personally don't think that would look good on anything but a gasser.

I think the obvious solution would be to lengthen the driveline, again, JMHO. Also you will have to take into account NOT track width, but OVERALL tire sidewall to sidewall width.

Reason being is that Corvette's as with most modern cars run a lot of backspace in the wheels, so there is not much room to gain with offset, you are about as far as you can go, the 63 cars run appox. 72" of width between the outer fender lip to outer fender lip.

You will need at LEAST an inch shorter than that on each side for clearance, esp with ind. suspension, so that Corvette tire to tire width better be less than 70" total.

Again, just what I am seeing at a glance.



Stan

[63Banshee]

There are many considerations when fitting the C5 to a T4, especially when you retain the C5 torque tube and suspension mounts. If I ever get out of the parts business long enough to finish a build for myself I'll be able to confirm what I have found thus far. I've got a body in the warehouse with the tunnel cut out waiting to come to the "Blue Berry Hill" shop for mating with the C5 LS6 chassis/driveline. Pictured is the Z06 running gear I'll be using. The torque tube will be lengthened 7.5", the firewall has to be modified to accommodate the engine setback, track width will be addressed during first mock up. I've got a rather elaborate idea of how to deal with track width, if it proves to be an issue. I considered using a traditional Pontiac engine, but probably won't bother. I figure it will do better at auction with the LS6.

[TempestFugit]

That's a pretty cool object to have sitting around.

[Poncho-V]

My main concern was the dimension from the front of the torque tube to the rear axle center line. The extra length of the 6sp. tranny has to be taken into consideration. And me being me, I would have to have Pontiac power....

[63Banshee]

Concern how?

The 6 speed will not fit under the T4 without surgery.

It's a modern GM driveline. Define Pontiac power, LS3? Not hardly in the terms you mean, yet it's (LS3) "allowed" in the Norwalk show. Heaven forbit you show up with a LS6 under the hood. Needless to say, showing at Norwalk isn't a concern I have.