Ok, so I was young. 1977 and I had a Ranault Dauphine, rear engine 1100cc and 3 speed box. Radiator was also in the rear so the front boot was huge.
I was going to scrap the car and a mate arrived and we decided to take it to a new estate - this was in the western suburbs of Melbourne. There was only bitumen roads, no houses. We started driving fast around bends to the point whereby the inside rear wheel lifted off the ground. The axle housing was held up with material hoops.
So off with the hoops. Faster and faster we went. Eventually we were going so fast the rear inside wheel tucked right under the car. This made the car shoot off in another direction but still couldnt roll the car.
I recall a Renault Gordini raced against Peter Brock in the "rally cross" of the early 1970's. That car often beat Brocky over the finish line- yeh they were that good.
So was wondering two things....that I was stupid. Dont try it at home. and 2/ would other rear engine cars behave the same way eg Beetles and type 3???
By the way. We cut the roof off the car for giggles. Then wrecked a Renault 10 for its 4 speed box. didnt work well - had to wled the two different main shafts together- but thats another story.
anything with SA back then rolled pretty easy. Seen videos of races on the ring in the late 60s and nearly all the rear engine SA cars rolled including those Renaults on one particular sharp bend. but all the 911s with IRS were fine.
Once IRS came out in the VW, I don't think rolling is a problem? I never been able to able to get any of my type 3s to go harry much, very stables cars with IRS. Had bit of pendulum effect on sand roads and flying 80km/h around a 90º sharpish bend coming on to a one lane bridge when damp, but it was only minor and easy to correct.
But had driven few buggies and restored one with SA, yep! sure can see dying in one of those! I added limiting straps to my buggy after few incidents 🤪
car I managed to get closest to roll was a x series falcon, so much body roll on those, I reckon they would roll if you try hard enough.
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE
Quite a few years ago we had class with limited capacity production cars racing at the Old Bar roadside circuit they raced Hillman Imps,Morris Minors,the Renaults,Ford Anglias and quite a few others and I think that the only one that didn't flip at some stage was the Imp.One of the last races with these vehicles featured Max French's VW rally beetle fitted out with a 1600 twin carb engine and Herbie stripes,and it started from the back of the field and lapped most of the field. The track is a motorcycle track and at that stage was also used for go karts and TQ's.It was always an entertaining day at the bike track.
68AutoBugBeetle Restorer - Experience over 138\% - YIKES --
tweety wrote:By the way. We cut the roof off the car for giggles. Then wrecked a Renault 10 for its 4 speed box. didnt work well - had to wled the two different main shafts together- but thats another story.
Good idea cut the roof off and try to roll it!!!
Perhaps you lowered the centre of gravity?
