We all know hot rodders who've hopped up their engines without giving much thought or attention to other areas of the car that should also be modified to safely handle the car's new power. Jay's engineering background wouldn't allow him to make that mistake, particularly when his project involved the conversion of a rear engine car into a front engine car. Many of the Monza's systems had to be redesigned.

To support the weight of the aluminum block Jag V-12, he redesigned the front suspension. The front cross member is all new except the spring towers. Lower control arms are all new pieces to support large spindles and ball joints. The upper arm has an adapter welded on to allow the use of large ball joints. The pieces at the rear of the photo support the cross member.

Jay removed the Corvair brake master cylinder and adapted a Buick electric power brake master cylinder, a job that  took two weeks. The aluminum adapter seen in the picture moved the cylinder over approximately 4-inches toward the outside of the car and angled the assembly as well. It was a further challenge to also rebuild the assembly to retain the original brake pedal position. He succeeded.

Jay tried to use Corvette brakes and suspension but discovered they would not fit. Remember, he wanted the car to look like a Corvair, and wanted to stay as close as he could to the 13" wheels. Of course, he also wanted brakes that could handle the job of pulling the car down from speeds not normally associated with stock Corvairs, so he had to be inventive.

The solution was to use the rotors and calipers GM used in the late 60s on its mid-size cars like the Chevelle and its Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile counterparts. They fit 14-inch wheels, and worked perfectly. However, if he was going to mount stock 13" Corvair wheel covers, he'd have to make up some adapter rings. 

At right, we see how Jay used a feeler gauge and a peg board template to properly align the adapter rings for tack welding to the 14" wheels.

With the wheel covers in place, it's difficult to tell the car is riding on 14" rubber. He says he is "always surprised that even the Corvair guys never see them."

I have to admit, when I first saw the picture of the car on the opening page of this feature, I had no idea. It's the perfect fake-out!