# Finished my dream Tjet project!



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

It always bugged me that Aurora T-jet Toronadoes aren't "anatomically correct"--that is, they're not front-wheel-drive. Some of you may remember that I putzed around with a converted FWD Tjet a year or two ago, with a JL blue Firebird body on it. Well, I finally set the chassis set up for the Toronado body...




























To get the chassis to fit a LWB body, I had to relocate the front screwpost (further forward) and the rear axle (further back). The rear screwpost technically is too far back too, but it just barely reaches the way it is for now. (Edit: BTW, the body is one of Chris Rolph's Dragjets. Yay Chris!) And yes, I know it sits high, but there's no way to get it lower without cutting the gear plate through the hood...

Rims are all AFX rears, tires are 8 (yes, 8! two on each rim!) of Weird Jack's Bauer tires. It doesn't accelerate worth a squat. Front tires spin most of the length of my front straight. But it's surprising how well this thing handles...you barely have to lift at the end of the straight, and you can pull yourself out of the turn with the throttle. It's an odd little beast, which is probably appropriate for a Toronado...

--rick


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## clausheupel (Jan 27, 2005)

Hi Rick,

now this is an absolutely awesome project! I love it!!!

Hmm, now next in line should be another chassis for one of my Eldo bodies...!? ;-)

Best regards,

Claus

www.c-jet500.de.vu


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## zanza (Sep 23, 2005)

Cool idea, giving back it's originality to the Toronado as a front wheel drive car...


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## T-jetjim (Sep 12, 2005)

Pretty impressive. How about a shot with the body off so we can see what you went through to modify for the gear plate, etc.

You can't be too far from true 4 wheel drive!

Jim


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

T-jetjim said:


> Pretty impressive. How about a shot with the body off so we can see what you went through to modify for the gear plate, etc.
> 
> You can't be too far from true 4 wheel drive!
> 
> Jim


 I can do that... the pics from the last thread are actually still hosted on my ISP...

here's what it looks like with the body off:




















And this is what I had to do to get the gear plate to fit on backwards. Basically, I extended the rectangle-shaped receiver slots in the top of the chassis for the lugs on the bottom of the gear plate to fit into, and then I cut new slots in the sides of the chassis for the gear plate clamp...










here's links to a couple more:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rwurtz/images/fwd01.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rwurtz/images/fwd02.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rwurtz/images/fwd06.jpg

These are all old pics from when I first started playing with the idea. The only significant difference in the chassis is that the rear axle is relocated farther back. When I get a chance, I'll put up some new pics of the front screwpost. For whatever reason, I had to hack away at the top of the post up against the bottom of the hood to get it to clear the gear plate. The post is being held on mostly by being epoxied to the inside of the front bumper/grille area...

I've actually seen 4WDs done like this; someone was selling them at a show I was at a few years ago. It's basically two gear plates, cut at the arm gear hole and glued together, so you have two idler gears, two driven/pinion gears and two drive axles...

--rick


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

clausheupel said:


> Hi Rick,
> 
> now this is an absolutely awesome project! I love it!!!
> 
> ...


 One of the first things I did when I got this together was to compare it with the Eldorado for that very reason. I don't know how it would look. If you look at how low the front of the Eldorado is, and how short the distance is between the tops of the front wheelwells and the tops of the fenders, it sure doesn't leave much room to work with. It would physically fit, but it might have to sit so high that it would look like a monster truck...

Believe me, I was hoping for a FWD Eldorado myself...

--rick


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

how is it drive? handel different or feel different in the turns? I would love to try running it.


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

yes, it does feel different... I can push farther into the turns before releasing the throttle, and I can nail it earlier coming out of the turn. It almost seems like you can just release it quick for a second at the beginning of the turn, then hit it again immediately, where other Tjets I have will spin if you do that. That said, it's NOT a racer... If I ran it against a regular Tjet with a similar top speed and a decent driver, the regular Tjet would win. It just takes so long to accelerate, because the wheels spin so much... the weight transfer is all wrong.

Now, I wonder what would happen if I got weighted front wheels or weighted the nose some other way...

--rick

ps here's the old thread where I tried to do this

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=89390


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## T-jetjim (Sep 12, 2005)

Rick-

Very clean work. I thought there might be some more hacking of the chassis, but it came out pretty good.

Jim


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

Awesome work...I wish I had the talent to pull stuff like that out of my hat. I remeber back in the early 80's trying to make a 4 wheel chassis it was a disatoer and pretty much depleted my extra chassis horde.. lol.. never did get it to work..so you definatly get my respect.!!!

BTW 2 more weeks of class then a couple of weeks off who hoo! gonna finish some projects as I finish them I have to pack them, this is wearing down my slot time.. anyone need a house CHEAP! so I can unpack some of my stuff and stop withthis silly store everything yyou own so people can see the walls cud.. evil houseguy you know not what you have done...


Coach
:thumbsup:


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## DACSIGNS (Aug 18, 2004)

Hey Park 
Lotsa work and really cool results, man! It would be interesting to try that with other chassis also. Glad ya got yer dream car goin!

Later --- Circle Track DAC


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

I really like that way out body man...who did that??? 
Chris


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

props to Chris on his bass-boat green-glitter resin... makes for a very distinctive looking car. :thumbsup:

Something very cool I noticed--

Set this thing on the track backwards and nail it, and it executes a perfect textbook Rockford every time... 

--rick


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## Al Markin (May 17, 2003)

Real nice job, I played with the idea also last year, but traction was never good on the 1/4 mile drags!


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## ScottD961 (Jan 31, 2008)

ParkRNDL said:


> props to Chris on his bass-boat green-glitter resin... makes for a very distinctive looking car. :thumbsup:
> 
> Something very cool I noticed--
> 
> ...


Now that would be fun to see and play with !:woohoo:


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

Brilliant...Well done!


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

love those drag sparkles...yeah Kewl front wheel drive idea that made it off the drawing board and onto the track. :woohoo:


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

bump for the uniqueness and new interest.


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## Thunderbolt1 (Nov 28, 2008)

In reading about the chassis, I over looked the fact that the body, is a repro? Someone cast that for you right ? They did a nice job on that and of course being a TORO it 's right at home on FWD. Is the body still available ?


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

That's a Dragjet body. Paging Dr. Dragjet, you still lurking around here? I haven't spoken to him in a while, but I know he's been around lately... anyone else still stay in touch with him?

--rick


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## slotto (Feb 9, 2010)

ParkRNDL said:


>


Great chassis bro. gotta make one


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## dtomol (Mar 30, 2005)

*Finished my dream Tjet Project*

Have you tried adding a traction magnet to the under side of the chassis to get the tires to hook up?


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## quartermilebuggy (Feb 9, 2013)

*front wheel drive*

I found the original article last night on how to do this..as soon as I figure out how to post I will


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

Great Job, I really like custom builds like this, Really thinking outside the box.

I thought I have seen a 4wd t-jet conversion somewhere

Again, very neat project, definitely on my list to build.

Boosted


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## 60chevyjim (Feb 21, 2008)

I have 2 tjet cars that someone made into 4wheel drive's , a ford torino and a 41 Lincoln.
they look kinda like rick's chassis but they cut 2 gearplates and put them together
so the front half of it looks like rick's chassis.. they run pretty good too !!
I bought them on ebay years ago. I just rembered about them when I seen this.


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