C3 Owners are off-center....
 

There.... that oughta get some attention....

A buddy of mine recently put a supercharger (blower) on his small block and when getting ready to cut a hole in the hood realized that the engine in C3's (and maybe C2's as well since they share so many frame components, etc.) sits off the center line to the left by a couple of inches. If you haven't looked on your C3, notice that the frame member that holds the motor mount on one side is a different length on the other side.

For my buddy that means cutting a hole in his hood off centerline... something his anal self wasn't ready to accept until he figures out why. And to carry this a step further, he would like to know why C3's are built this way.

I think I've read something about this before but with the inefficient search engine I wasn't able to find anything. So what's the story? Better handling? Better balance? Offsetting engine torque? More room for fat-bottomed girls on the passengers side? Zora was slightly to the left politically?

Anyone? My anal buddy refuses to cut until he has a reason he feels makes sense..... and in the meantime his engine is getting wet... (but most of that is front the over-heating radiator while he waits for his "Be Cool" stuff to arrive.)

Thanks for any help....

kp

I beleive the primar engineering problem was the requirement of IRS to have equal length 1/2 shafts, since they are acting as the upper arm in the suspension, serving dual purpose....
so to keep the suspension identical, the offset to the pass side of the entire drivetrain was required for the pinion gear to mate with the ring gear in the differential and the drive shaft to line up horizontally......with a solid axel rear that is not so much of a problem....
added in is the steering linkage, and other accessory space requirements....
also it's maybe not so bad a shift in the handling department as the weight of driver being ~170 lbs or so.....

GENE

Damn,

170# driver??...... the other day someone talked about a 150# driver.

I gotta go on a diet.

Not bad at all, I got my crossweights to 50% with less than two turns on the left rear spring bolt (raising), with me in the car (150 lbs).

how much of the blower is sticking through? if the carb is above the hood line, then i would cut both sides evenly and then use the open side to run your fuel , vacuum lines etc.. If only an air scoop is going to stick through, you could probably cut the hole in the center and then modify the scoop to offset it .

C3's are not the only car with this condition. I took out a V6 and put in a V8 in a 77 Mustang II and it was the same way. That was the only way the motor and exhuast would stay clear of the steering componates.

That was me. I have an advantage over some drag racing due to low body weight. Kind of makes up for my crappy reaction time :rofl:

They are all offset and I discovered how much 4 years ago when I too cut a hole in the hood for the blower. I carefully cut the hood to match the motor, I did not cut a big concentric hole and use the extra 2 inch opening on one side for the carb linakage and fuel lines. I feel this would look stupid.
Cut where needed and as little as possible.

you can hardly tell....... :cheers:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...-3busavet2.jpg

I don't know how much of the supercharger/dual quads, etc. is above the hood. Right now he's cutting on a cardboard template trying to get an idea of where to cut the hood. I've printed a few of the pics from the photo galleries here (including the one just above, thanks) to give him some ideas.

I'll try and post a pic of the finished project when it happens.

As for why the offset in the first place, the 1/2 shafts seems a reasonable explanaition to me.... let's see what he says....

thanks,

kdlp

I'm 250 now. If I lose 50 lbs that should free up 5 h.p. Man I gotta stop drinking so much beer!!! :cheers:

Early Camaros have a variable offset. The big block is off-set to the passenger side while the small blocks are centered. This is for clearance around the power steering box. The side effects of the offset includes special BB shifter mounting brackets, special BB shifter linkage, special BB motor stands, etc. I guess it is not that unusual to have the powertrain offset.

-Mark.