This picture shows the area behind the front wheels and provides another view of the fit of the coolant and exhaust pipes in the standard Corvair tunnel. Everything fits flush with the floor pan.

A steel strap bolts over the exhaust and coolant pipes to complete the original cross member, making the basic structure of the body better than stock. Note the anti-roll bar.

"Boy, did I learn a lot about automatic transmissions," Jay remarked when asked about adapting the special Powerglide transmission to street and highway use. "These boxes were made just for drag racing; no modulation or accumulators, as they had to shift 600 hp at 7000 rpm quickly to save the bands and clutches."

He describes the car as a "great highway cruiser" but says his 421 Tempest gets off the line quicker, even though it also has a 2.9:1 final drive ratio.

"Cubic inches," he laughs. "Torque!"

He also reasons that because the racing 4-speed Powerglide was designed to be used with a lower final drive ratio (higher numerically - 4.88:1), the 1st gear ratio isn't low enough to provide the crisp off-the-line performance he would prefer.

Electronically controlled engines need a lot of signals. Mounting the Buick shift switch and speed sensors was another tough job. The round aluminum piece is one of the accumulators for the 2 clutches to smooth out the shifts.

Jay notes that the late model Corvair rear suspension was a direct copy of the Corvette, with the exception that the Corvette used a transverse leaf spring setup, while the Corvair used coils. The half shafts were the top link and were locked into the side gears, while the Tempest used a swinging link system where the half shafts were free floating. Jay made the linkage for the top link, seen in the photo, below, effectively completing the union of Corvair suspension and Tempest transaxle.