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1969 Rambler Indy Car

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Topic: 1969 Rambler Indy Car
Posted By: MD Racer
Subject: 1969 Rambler Indy Car
Date Posted: May/28/2016 at 4:20pm
I found these photos in the Indianapolis Photo archive of the Barney Navarro Rambler six powered Indy car. It never qualified, met an unfortunate end in a crash during practice. If anyone has more info on this car please add to this post. I tried to find pictures of the car in 1967 and 1968 but was unsuccessful. They have some photos scanned in to their computers and lots of photos that are not.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/b69c8ed0-9ba2-4e71-b979-1165f5d655d0.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/d775474e-dcae-4bc0-a9c2-4e804f089d54.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/fdab8c38-87f6-4ee3-afe6-0236231c7520.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/233186f2-eee1-4770-b00a-1d012e7fe7e3.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/28fd79e5-712f-44b3-98a7-f67f8ffa87ae.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">


http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/888ad604-118a-40f8-9e3f-7aa230916155.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">


http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/a7899f25-7ede-4973-afd3-2044ba793da8.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">



http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/87b9736f-51d2-4252-a17b-26ced2717280.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/6177a1e8-b08c-4b48-ad13-1edd11571327.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX



Replies:
Posted By: WesternRed
Date Posted: May/28/2016 at 4:41pm
Great photos, that was certainly some piece of work with that big turbo hanging out the side.


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: May/28/2016 at 6:23pm
I was looking all over the internet about a year ago for photos of the Navarro AMC Indy car for Bob McClurg's" History of AMC Motorsports " book. I have some stuff on the 70's Indy car. Wish I'd known you had some more photos for Bob's book. The latter more successful 70s effort  did not make to the book due to lack of space. Just ran out of room. LRDaum


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LRDaum


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: May/28/2016 at 6:34pm
The Navarro AMC Indy car never qualified at Indy. I believe it ran in a couple of the other Indy cars races with out great success. The car used an older(1964) A J Watson chassis and never had a top driver in the car. They used Les Scot, who was used to set fuel economy records for AMC. I believe the car was wreck while trying to qualify for the 1967 Indy race. The INDY museum had a photo or two of the car crashed against the out side railing as I recall. The crash pretty much ended this effort from my understanding. By 1968 the new rear engine Indy cars were coming to fore and the older roadster type cars were gone pretty soon after. LRDaum


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LRDaum


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: May/28/2016 at 7:29pm
I bought these photos from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway photo archive in the museum. They have photos from each year scanned into their computer system. I found these in the 1969 photo archive. They printed them out for a cost of $10 each 8x12 print. I didn't find any pictures in their 1967 or 1968 files. They also have books of pictures in a back room that are not scanned into their data base. I didn't have enough time to look in them. Someday I will go back and look again.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/01/2016 at 9:33pm
I found some more information on this car. The car was built by AJ Watson for Roger Ward in 1964. It was entered in the Indy 500 that year as the Leader Card #2 Kaiser Aluminum entry. It finished second in the 500 and had two other second place finishes that season. In 1966/7 close season it was sold to Norm Hall, who linked up with Barney Navarro to use the 199 ci 6-cylinder AMC Rambler turbo engine Navarro Engineering was developing. The car appeared from 1967-72 but, as a general rule, failed to qualify. It was later acquired from Navarro by Roger Ward and restored to it's 1964 specifications. The car is now on display at the Malloy Foundation Collection (Corona, California).

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: Aljav
Date Posted: Jun/10/2016 at 6:56am
Too bad the motor wasn't reunited with the car and return to the AMC colors. Another chapter in AMC racing that is not documented enough. Ouch.

Picture are very cool non the less.

Allan


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69 AMX 9.86 132 mph 71 JAV/AMX and 69 Javelin, .. NAMDRA member #1106


Posted By: gtoman_us
Date Posted: Jun/10/2016 at 8:44am
Check with TomJ here on the forum. He purchased one or two the motors. If I recall correctly.

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Moderator - Emeritus

Used to collect trophies, now I collect gas receipts and put on miles

1964 Rambler Ambassador Cross Country Wagon
1965 GTO
1931 Model A original survivor
"Flat Roofs are Cool"


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/10/2016 at 12:15pm
I am going back to the Speedway next weekend to watch the vintage car race and will go back to the Museum photo archive to see if I can find any more photos of the Navarro car. I am looking for info on the races the car was in and the results. I found some info on it's performance in 1971 and 1972, but don't have any info prior to those years.

1971 Season

2-28-71 Rafaela Indy 300 (1) Autodromo de Rafaela, Mexico
Qualified 20th Finished 19th
Driver Dave Strickland

2-28-71 Rafaela Indy 300 (2) Autodromo de Ralaela, Mexico
Qualified 19th Finished 15th
Driver Dave Strickland

1971 Indy 500
Drivers Dave Strickland and Les Scott
Did not make a qualifying attempt

9-5-71 California 500 Ontario Motor Speedway
Driver John Cannon
Only used in practice

10-23-71 Bobby Ball 150 Phoenix International Raceway
Driver John Cannon
Did not appear

1972 Indy 500
Driver Jigger Sirois
Did not make a qualifying attempt.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: 8pack
Date Posted: Jun/11/2016 at 10:04am
Very cool


Posted By: CamJam
Date Posted: Jun/11/2016 at 11:55am
They were running a 1964 chassis in 71-72? No wonder it didn't qualify!!!

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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST
'69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD



Posted By: amcenthusiast
Date Posted: Jun/12/2016 at 9:29am
Congratulations and thank you to all contributors for info on this historical AMC race car.

Prior to this new short thread, all I knew about this car was what I learned by checking out Tom Jenning's WPS Rambler pages (thanks Tom):

http://worldpowersystems.com/AMC/Navarro-turbo-motor/

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Context of comparison;

I remember hearing much about Chrysler's turbine powered Indy car during the mid sixties...

As far as I know, apparently, during this same time period when the Navarro car was active, this was the otherwise glorious peak of Offenhauser engine development.

Weird thing was, as Offenhauser (USA) faded away (because Mr Offenhauser died in the early seventies and Drake was taking over?) GM chose Cosworth (British) to do the engine for the limited edition Chevy Vega... kinda like a widow who gets married to her husband's enemy, right after he dies?

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Now that we know this turbo AMC inline six Indy car was running in '64 (?) this adds a new paragraph onto that AMC History section which tells about AMC's noble participation and obedience during the '57 to '62 American Manufacturer Association ban on factory supported racing (aka 'The Rambler Days' at AMC), where we may tell of those famous race cars before and after the ban.

*While the AMA ban happened following '55 LeMans Disaster and '57 NASCAR Mercury Meteor crash into grandstands (what a name!), this shows a rather 'scrubbed' Internet for (more recent) lack of info on the Mercury Meteor crash? (I think Ford must have the most scary intimidating lawyers, always maintaining Ford's seemingly spotless reputation?)

Knowing about the AMA ban, one may notice (rather consistently) other pieces to puzzle like this;
copied from http://www.onedirt.com/features/offenhauser-the-greatest-racing-engine-ever-built/
 
  • From 1947 through 1964, Offenhauser engines powered the winning cars in the Indianapolis 500 (17 straight years).
  • From 1950 through 1960, Offenhauser-powered cars not only won the Indy 500 but also claimed all three podium positions, winning the pole in 10 of the 11 years.


...so it seems that since Offenhauser was not a auto maker there was no agreement with the ban to bind their efforts... but in AMC History, we see the race cars in time frames set on either side, which truly helps to explain what AMC did during '57 to '62 IMO.





Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jun/12/2016 at 5:12pm
*While the AMA ban happened following '55 LeMans Disaster and '57 NASCAR Mercury Meteor crash into grandstands (what a name!), this shows a rather 'scrubbed' Internet for (more recent) lack of info on the Mercury Meteor crash? (I think Ford must have the most scary intimidating lawyers, always maintaining Ford's seemingly spotless reputation?)

The AMA ban is much more understandable when you learn that George Romney was president of the AMA at that time. You have to wonder was the ban because AMC could not compete at that time or was it a more heart felt against spectator accidents. LRD

I've got an article from AMC Indy car effort at the time in an house publication to it's owners "Americana" but I do NOT have a complete set and right now the one with the Navarro Indy car article has wondered off some where, but it's circa 1967/68 . When it turns up I'll scan the article and post it here. LRDaum
 


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LRDaum


Posted By: amcenthusiast
Date Posted: Jun/12/2016 at 9:52pm
~Thanks!~ LRDaum for telling (us) Romney was president... now I'm glad I spoke up.

This news (to me at least) only double confirms my personal speculation that the ban was the reason AMC did not continue to develop the '57 Rebel...

Looking forward to more info on this! 


Posted By: LakesideRamblin
Date Posted: Jun/13/2016 at 1:00am
Thanks for the very interesting history and facts. Great information.

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LakesideRamblin
69 Rambler 360
73 Javelin 360
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." T. Roosevelt


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/14/2016 at 8:01am
While I was looking up info on this car I also found that up till the mid 70' some teams were running older cars in competition. Some did fairly well, in 1971 year old cars were winning on the Champ car circuit. It wasn't till the cars started doing 200 mph that you needed a new chassis to be competitive.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/17/2016 at 11:45pm
I went to the SVRA Brickyard Invitational yesterday and went back to the Indianapolis photo archive to look for more photos of this car. I was successful in finding three more pictures of the car, two from 1970 and one from 1971. The archive had to reprint two from the photo books they have and mail them to me. I won't have them till next week and will post them at that time.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jun/20/2016 at 4:49pm
I found my Americana magazine form 1968 Vol. 3 No. 5 with the early Navarro six cylinder Indy car article. seems it was printed some time just before the 1968 Indy car race. LRDaum

http://s183.photobucket.com/user/mramc/media/AMC%20forum%20stuff/RAI1_zpsgfxzpbnx.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">


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LRDaum


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jun/20/2016 at 4:51pm
Ok I'll try posting pages two and three. LRDaum

http://s183.photobucket.com/user/mramc/media/AMC%20forum%20stuff/RAI2_zpsmk5x5aqj.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

http://s183.photobucket.com/user/mramc/media/AMC%20forum%20stuff/RAI3_zpsliizxhuy.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">


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LRDaum


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/22/2016 at 7:48am
Thanks for posting the article Larry. I found these pictures of the car at the Indy photo archive. First two are from 1970. You can see the car sporting a new nose cone and red paint. The driver's helmet has the name Dennis on it, I don't recognize him.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/61b16403-50c9-4b43-8511-757442a75de9.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/Scan0003.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">


This next picture was taken in 1971 at the Speedway. The car is painted red and features a modified tail piece with a duck tail spoiler.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/Scan0001.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

I want to go back and see if I can find some pictures of the car from 1967 and 1968.




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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: CamJam
Date Posted: Jun/22/2016 at 9:31am

Wikipedia shows car #50 with two drivers in 1971, Dave Strickland and Les Scott.

1970 was Denny Zimmerman with Arnie Knepper as alternate. That must be Denny in the first photo.

The car failed to qualify both years.

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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST
'69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD



Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jun/22/2016 at 4:55pm
Cam I like a link to the wiki your talking about. I'm not finding it , but I don't know what you looked for either. LRDaum

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LRDaum


Posted By: CamJam
Date Posted: Jun/22/2016 at 5:26pm
Originally posted by mramc mramc wrote:

Cam I like a link to the wiki your talking about. I'm not finding it , but I don't know what you looked for either. LRDaum


Scroll down to the "Failed to Qualify" section and look for Car #50:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Indianapolis_500" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Indianapolis_500
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Indianapolis_500" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Indianapolis_500



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'73 Javelin 360 (current project)
'72 Baja Bronze Javelin SST
'69 Big Bad Orange AMX (2018 Teague Heritage Award) SOLD



Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/23/2016 at 2:14am
Great link, I found some info handy for my future research on the 1967 and 1968 cars.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jun/23/2016 at 12:26pm
What I find interesting is the Navarro AMC Indy car tried 5 times to qualify for the Indy 500 and never made it. A good try but nothing you can call success. LRDaum


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LRDaum


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/23/2016 at 10:37pm
From what I read in your article Barney Navarro didn't have the bugs worked out with the engine. He spent his time at the track sorting the car out. Other than the races at the start of 1971, the car wasn't competitive at Indy. He had issues with his drivers not having enough experience, the car crashed in 1969, and couldn't get up enough speed to qualify in 70, 71, and 72. It was an interesting experiment in Indy car racing.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: Jul/06/2016 at 1:18pm
I picked up the May/June issue of Vintage Motorsport the other day from B&N. The reason being it has the restored 1964 Watson-Ford Indy car  on the cover, or i.e. the car Barney Navarro used to try and get into the Indy 500 with the AMC six. Thecar is restored to the original 1964 configuration because  while it came in 2nd at Indy in 1964 it won the USAC championship that year. Navarro's AMC six Indy engine if no one mentioned it before is in the NHRA museum at the LA County fair grounds AKA the Pomona Speedway. The magazine also has an article on Woody Woodard , who chief mechanic for Penske racing and Mark Donohue from 1969 to 1977. And to top it off an article on the Historic Trans-Am racing although no good picture of any of the AMC T/A cars. LRDaum


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LRDaum


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/09/2016 at 4:48pm
I found some pictures of the car from 1967 yesterday. I was going to Indy and stopped by the Speedway. I will get them in the mail in a few days and will post them. I had to look through three books of proof sheets till I found them. I will go back again and look for photos from 1968 and 1972.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/09/2016 at 5:38pm
I was looking around the internet and found this picture of the car. I don't know where it was taken, but it looks like it was in 1969 sometime.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/20130216_090947.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/14/2016 at 9:29pm
I found some pictures of the car at Indy in 1967. This is the first year the car tried to qualify, but due to turbo problems it never made an attempt.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/Scan0001203.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/Scan0002203.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/Scan0003203.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">



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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: GreggR
Date Posted: Jul/15/2016 at 8:32pm
Originally posted by MD Racer MD Racer wrote:

I was looking around the internet and found this picture of the car. I don't know where it was taken, but it looks like it was in 1969 sometime.

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/20130216_090947.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

The flattop in the upper right id great product placement...!



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No matter where you go, there you are... Buckaroo Banzai.'75 Hornet Hatchback


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/21/2016 at 10:27pm
Digging around I found some more info on the car's history.

7-19-69 Trenton
Started 21st Finished 11th 118 laps flagged
Driver Les Scott

7-27-69 Indianapolis Raceway Park
Started 24th Finished 23rd 11 laps oil pressure
Driver Les Scott

9-21-69 Trenton
Started 25th Finished 20th 47 laps ignition
Driver Les Scott

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: May/22/2017 at 1:21am
I have been back to the photo archive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and have found some more pictures or the Navarro Indy car from 1968. I will be posting them as soon as I receive them. Seems the car was wrecked in 1968. Photos also show Les Scott as the driver.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: mramc
Date Posted: May/22/2017 at 11:16am
The Navarro car was wrecked in 1968. The car never qualified for the Indy 500 Race. If I recall correctly it did run a couple others races, but never at Indy. I think it wrecked during time trails or practice. I've seen some of those pictures. The Indy track museum use to have a few of them on it's on line history section at one time. LRDaum

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LRDaum


Posted By: jpnjim
Date Posted: May/22/2017 at 2:08pm
Thank you MD for going to the effort of starting this thread and keeping it updated with new pictures!
And thanks to everyone else who posted information, articles and pictures!




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71 P-code 4spd Javelin/AMX
some Jeeps and some Fords


Posted By: amcenthusiast
Date Posted: May/27/2017 at 1:45pm
-Sure does make the AM 232 look good learning their trouble was not from the engine itself.

In that group of pages posted by mramc, does anyone else see how the cylinder head combustion chambers look modified?


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443 XRV8 Gremlin YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=2DmFOKRuzUc
XRV8 Race Parts website: http://amcramblermarlin.1colony.com/


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/09/2017 at 3:39pm
Here are the photos I found of the car in 1968. First photo shows Les Scott in  the car as the driver. Second photo has his name as the driver taped over on the side of the car.  The third and fourth are after the car hit the wall. 

http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/196820car201.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/196820car202.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/196820crash201.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">
http://s459.photobucket.com/user/mdracer1971/media/196820crash202.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">



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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/09/2017 at 3:50pm
Interesting note looking at all the photos is seeing the changes in tire width each year. Also the changes in the bodywork configuration of the engine cover. It looks as though Barney kept the car close to original in 1967, then he cut down the rear engine cowl in 1968. The paint scheme also changed from 1967 to 1971. 1968 was the first year it was painted red, white and blue. I had spent two hours going through the photo negative books to find the 1968 pictures at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway photo archive. I will have to go back and see if I can find any pictures of the car in 1972. 

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: tomj
Date Posted: Jul/08/2017 at 2:04am
a few years back i sold all the Navarro rambler stuff i had -- except for the crankshaft and a big box of bearings -- to a guy up in seattle WA area who was building a replica of #50 for himself or a client. he owned an import-scene turbo retrofit business (don't laugh, those guys get 1000 hp from lil' ol' 4-bangers these days) =. he drove down, paid cash, and took it all away. haven't heard a word about it since. i hope the project didn't die.

i had a fantasy of building a more modest motor from the various parts, but it was all too exotic. i kinda wish i'd saved one head, with the AMC factory R & D part number (one had no number at all!) but they were not amenable to easy re-use.

then in 1967..1970, what Navarro was doing was just magic. today, with computers, it's barbaric. that is no insult to him! he did in his head and with slide rule what "kids" use computers for. he understood as well as anyone how turbos and combustion worked. it's a tribute to him that he did it AT ALL never mind at Indy level of performance. i take it that there were "system" problems, not engine problems, that kept the car from qualifying -- chassis, driver, ...

all i had was a test mule engine and parts that had run at Buttonwillow, and possibly a speed run at Bonneville. test mules for the single-turbo, the carbed version. i did have some incomplete Hilborn FI stuff but no pump etc.

today, you could work up a clone of it that would do as well or better. the hard part would be the mechanical cam stuff, adjustable pushrods and all that. the 550 (!) hp engine was a factory 199 block, the only mods were a drilled out main oil gallery and some external mods to cooling (and i have that nailed with current tech, hands down). 

again no insult to him, a 40 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE! 4.0 head would probably flow close to what Barney got from the '66 AMC head. a wild cam and big carb, you could do it now. the block is certainly strong enough.

the intake system looked unlike anything today, all those snakey long runners. but you could make that now, it wouldn't be hard. and the long intake runners would be great.



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1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com



Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/09/2017 at 1:06am
It would be cool to see a replica of the car run again. I hope the buyer of your engine does something with it. It would be a shame to lose a great piece of AMC history. I still have all the photos of the car, now that photobucket is holding the uploaded copies of them for ransom. I am still going to go back and try to find some more pictures of the car from 1971 and 1972.   


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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: Slate
Date Posted: Jul/09/2017 at 9:17pm
Your photos appear as a photobucket logo about 3rd party hosting.


Steve


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jul/21/2017 at 1:05am
Just tried the photo upload feature and it worked. This is the 1968 version of the Navarro Indy car. 


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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jun/22/2018 at 11:22pm
I found some more photos of the car from 1970-1972. I need some info on what lap times and speeds the car did each year. 

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 9:50pm
Due to photobucket changing it's policies I'm reposting the pictures.
These are the 1967 car.








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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 10:09pm
These are from 1968









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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 10:14pm
1969 car























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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 10:16pm
1970 car













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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 10:22pm
1971 car













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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Jan/10/2020 at 10:25pm
1972 car







You can see in the last picture the twin turbos on the engine. They also modified the cowling over the driver. Also the addition of a rear wing with larger front winglets on the nose.

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX


Posted By: tomj
Date Posted: Jan/17/2020 at 12:10am
Barney Navarro auctioned off his shop contents in 2005, here in Los Angeles. Someone posted about the auction in the old AMC-LIST. I popped in to see the 750 hp twin turbo motor. It sold for a bunch of money.

Most people were there for allt he flathead Ford stuff, and his machine tools. I hung around for a while for the heck of it. Then there was this shelf with... rambler parts? WTF. I wasn't prepared to be there, and never saw any list beforehand.

Anyway I bid $500 and bought this whole shelf of random rambler parts. Just pieces and stuff, no whole engine. One other guy bid on another lot of rambler stuff, he had relatively deep pockets. A third guy bought the transaxle. 

In my lot were some quick-change gear sets that I sold on the spot to the guy who bought the axle, for $200. 

When I got it home and inventoried it -- link below -- and talked to two people who worked for Barney I figured out:

* what I had was pieces of two 'test mule' engines. There were two versions of the rambler indy motor: the 550 hp single turbo, Dellorto carb'ed version, and a twin turbo, 750 hp fuel injected version. That's the one that sold for $20K or whatever it was.

* I got pieces of the carb'd engine. Two heads, one without cast-in part numbers, instead, "R&D". Photos below. A cast stainless steel turbo manifold. a cam, and a lot of random parts. One 199ci crank.

Documented that stuff here:  http://www.worldpowersystems.com/AMC/index.html#NAVARRO" rel="nofollow - http://www.worldpowersystems.com/AMC/index.html#NAVARRO

Three pages there.

Years later this guy contacted me, he ran a turbo shop up in washington state. After many conversations I sold him the pile of stuff for a nominal fee; he was re-creating car #50. He got the block, both heads, cam, other stuff. 

I tried to stay in touch... he never responded... I searched out his shop online, it had been there, then it was gone. I think he died or something. So that stuff seems totally lost, disappeared off the planet. 

I wish I had that R&D head. A big regret. The rest of the stuff was either too exotic or too generic to be worth much. The cast intake would be a nice wall hanger...

Technology-wise, Barney was a freakin' genius. But keep in mind, he had a slide rule, no computers. It was a 500 mile hand grenade. No intercooler, mechanical injection. I had some of the Hilborn parts. Fuel pump was aircraft surplus, mounted on the end of the camshaft.

The head was beautiful. The block was a regular '64 block, worked over. It had been O-ringed, as was the head, so running that on the street would have not been practical for various reasons partially covered in the pages above.

* the 550 hp motor used a stock block. THe mods, documented above, were: bored out main oil gallery O-ringing, blocked off water pump (external pump), dry-sump oil,  the R&D head, stock crank.

* the 750 hp motor block had been modified for four bolt mains, so I was told by Barney's engineer. He said there was another one "in a closet here somewhere" probably lost by now.

* That same engineer told me when Barney was contracted by the customer to build #50, Barney just checked out current production inline engines, and determined thatr the new AMC inline size was the strongest (stiffest) engine available. 

* The particular motor I had -- block, head(s), crank, dry sump pan -- had been run at Buttonwillow, and ran dry of oil, scoring the crank. This guy said he'd never seen Barney so mad at himself for such a dumb mistake -- he made a right turn on an engine designed for left turns only, ran the crank dry. They pulled the engine tore it down, set it on the shelf... and that's what I had bought. (It came with a huge box of .010" over bearings. It was deemed repairable. I have the crank and bearings, still.)

All in all none of the stuff I got was of particular historic interest, other than that one R&D head. Check out the web pages. It's interesting to note that the little AMC six is suck a brick sh*thouse, a heck of a basis for building a real endurance motor. I've always wanted to do that, and may still.



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1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com



Posted By: jcsperson
Date Posted: Jan/18/2020 at 8:57pm

This car has an interesting history with a (very brief) AMC link. 

https://vintageracecarsales.com/folio-view/1969-dan-gurney-eagle-mark-5-f5000/ - https://vintageracecarsales.com/portfolio-view/1969-dan-gurney-eagle-mark-5-f5000/


Posted By: MD Racer
Date Posted: Apr/09/2021 at 11:33pm
 I had visited Tomj's web site a number of times. It's what got me interested in this car. I have been thinking of trying to build a 6 cylinder replica of the Navarro engine. I've got a 258 6 cylinder laying around my shop that came out of my 1971 Base Javelin. 

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1971 Javelin
1971 Javelin SST
1971 Javelin AMX



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