Legrand FB Wheels

[rusty718]

What Would have been the standard wheel widths for a 1967 Legrand Formula B?
Thanks,
Rusty Tanner

[Thomas Wirtz]

For what it's worth....

Race-cars.com/archive has a 1962 Legrand Mark 3 listed with 8" Fronts and 10 " rears.

[gerhard_k]

For what it's worth....

Race-cars.com/archive has a 1962 Legrand Mark 3 listed with 8" Fronts and 10 " rears.

I wrenched on a LeGrand Mk.3 (chassis #2, which we put together in Red's 2-car garage) Formula C for Karl Knapp in 1965, for 1966 we put a Ford twincam into it for Formula B, and then we built chassis #1 of the Mk.6 for 1967. Karl did quite well in SoPac Nationals and the "pro" series.
At the end of that season, Karl sold the car to me, I ran it in 1968 and 1969.
Besides the 10" dia. front and 12" rear wheels that Red made for the 1963 Mk.1 Formula 4 car, there were 6x13 fronts and 7x13 rears for the Mk.3 F/C. For Formula B, and as the tires got wider, we put the 7" on the front and new 9-1/2" on the rear. Then Red made some 11x13's (I think initially for the Mk.7 Formula A car), so by the end of 1969 my Mk.6 Formula B had 9-1/2" on the front and 11" on the rear, with the fantastic new Firestone YB11 tires. Yes, I'm that old!

So - if it's a LeGrand Mk.3, it was not earlier than 1965 - in 1962, there wasn't even a Mk.1 yet. And if they say the wheels were 8" and 10", I would guess they were 7" and the 9-1/2" - Red never made anything in between.

And to answer Rusty's question directly, by the end of 1967, the 9-1/2" wheels were probably available, so although a Mk.3 would have been built with 6's and 7's, by then it would likely have been upgraded to 7's and 9-1/2's if it was a Formula B. In Formula C, the consensus would have been that 6's and 7's were quite enough.

[eltoro]

Hi Gerhad
Do you have any info/drawings on the mk3 and mk6.
what were the differences on the chassis.
As i understand they initially had rocker suspension on the fronts which they subsequently
changed to double wishbones.
cheers

[gerhard_k]

Hi Gerhad
Do you have any info/drawings on the mk3 and mk6.
what were the differences on the chassis.
As i understand they initially had rocker suspension on the fronts which they subsequently
changed to double wishbones.
cheers

The biggest difference was, the Mk.3 had cast-aluminum upper A-arms with inboard shocks; when we put the 1600 twincam into it for FB, it got bad brake shudder, blamed on the narrow base of that cast A-arm. Also, it was an open I-beam shape which probably had as much drag as an outboard shock would have had, and the rocker made adjusting alignment very difficult. The Mk.6 got a conventional Heim-jointed A-arm with wider base (I honestly don't remember whether it was an A-arm or a single link with a trailing or leading arm) and a generally beefed-up chassis for the higher HP, speeds and braking loads, and suspension mod's for the increasing tire and wheel widths.
One of the less satisfactory aspects of the car were the Airheart brake calipers; Red used them on the Mk.1 because they were super-light, but even the larger size on the Mk.3/6 never worked that well, the pads were very small and the calipers not very rigid - nothing like diving inside a car going into Turn 7 at Riverside and having to pump the brakes twice before getting slowed down!
I don't have any chassis drawings, Al James was the keeper of the LeGrand Registry and claims to have sets of drawings for most models of LeGrand - PM me and I'll give you contact info and my phone # if you want to talk.
Just noticed you're in Australia - don't tell me a LeGrand actually travelled that far?

[ridelikeadiesel]

I just bought a car that has perplexed Al, maybe you'll know something. It is a space frame Mk18, built with round tube and not a monocoque, but it has Mk1 uprights and arms (front and rear). We don't think the car was ever finished, but it was said to have been bought from Red around the time you are talking about. Does it ring any bells? We're trying to put some story to this little gem.

Aaron Atkins
760 953-6684
aaron.atkins@hesperiausd.org

[FB4ME]

Gerhard
I have a FC that Carter Penley ran in the mid /late 1960s and early '70s. Based in SoCal. He was playing with aero at the time. He and a friend who was designing boats at the time built fairing pods(for lack of a better description) for the front wheels and a small wing over the rear body which they also designed and built. They didn't know about downforce at the time and were only trying to clean up the air flow. The car was yellow when he had it.
Do you remember anything about this car? It still has the rocker front suspension. I would love to find a set of original LeGrand wheels for it. They probably wouldn't still be safe at speed but they look cool.
Brad in Seattle