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Valano GT
https://slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20635
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Author:  VE Safari [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:17 am ]
Post subject:  Valano GT

Saw this at a recent Chrysler show here in Sydney. What was interesting (apart from the fact a slant was powering a light-weight special!) was that the motor appears to have been installed in a more upright position. It was still slanted, but to me something just didn't look quite right. I meant to go back and check it out further, but it was gone by the time I got back around to it.

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Author:  slantvaliant [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:11 am ]
Post subject: 

I like it! Anyone know any more about it? Photos of it with the hood down?

Author:  slantvaliant [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:36 am ]
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Ok, I found a little about it. Looks like a guy named Paul Manton, possibly from New South Wales, runs one in historic races. That might be his.

http://www.speedontweed.com/entries.html

Look under Classic Sports Cars, Over 2001 (cc)
Paul Manton 1964 Valano GT225

From Moparchat:

" John Tozer05-25-2002, 10:16 PM
I just got the latest copy of Slick 6 Packs, Australias only Mopar magazine, and read about a race car made in the 50s and 60s by JWF Fibre Glass Industries. It looks like a cross between a Bowell Nagari and an AC Cobra.
The Valano GT 225 was assembled by Chrysler Australia experimental engineers using an unslanted slant 6. The engine was fitted upright to improve balance, it was then mated to a Mk 5 Jaguar 4spd gear box using a Jag D type clutch and a narrowed Valiant diff with 3.20 ratio (discs all round).
Fitted with tripple 2" SU carbies it ran the quater mile in 13.8 seconds in 1965, a class record at the time. The car is raced on circuits to this day and is road registered.
This is a very cool looking little race car indeed "

Author:  SlantSixDan [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:46 am ]
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Hey, I recognise those taillamps, they're from a Renault 4! :lol:

Author:  slantvaliant [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm ]
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There's a little bit of several cars in that machine - and that's a good thing! :D
If they de-slanted for balance, I assume it's for side-to-side balance. Probably good for a narrow right-hand-drive car.

More of a road car, and prettier than the Lotus-Valiant, no?

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In that car, they kicked the front of the engine over to starboard (edit - That would be port).

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Author:  VE Safari [ Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:37 pm ]
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Love the HyperPak!

I just found out from MoparMarket that this car was based on the "Milano GT" kit car, which used a Holden (Aussie GM) straight six. By chance there is currently one for sale on eBay: Milano GT

Author:  slantvaliant [ Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:30 am ]
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That's a nice face on the Milano.
Oh, yeah! Valiant + Milano = Valano. Got it!
Ok, so I'm slow at times.

Author:  DionR [ Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:26 pm ]
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Looks to me like they stood the slant 6 up to miss the drivers foot well, not for balance.

Neat car, though.

Author:  Slanted Opinion [ Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:04 am ]
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Anyone have any experience with the triple SU intake? Are they streetable? Any power in the mid-range, or only in the high RPM band?

The triple SU intake is still available for the slant as an "off the shelf" performance component.

-Mac

Author:  MorganGT [ Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:46 am ]
Post subject: 

There was only one Valano GT made, and that one is it. The Milano GT base kit it was built from was designed for the Holden six - it being an upright motor, the 'notch' in the firewall for the rear end of the block was too narrow for the slant six to fit unless tilted upright - also those pics show the narrowly spaced upper chassis rails, which would get in the way of the slant head in its 'traditional' slanted layout.

The manifolds are custom made, and are actually a single piece (one header plate for both inlet and exhaust runners). I have seen this car up close, and the manifolding looks particularly weird, because with the motor tilted upright, the face on the head the manifolds bolt to actually angles downwards by almost 30 degrees, hence needing custom manifolds.

I like it, but personally, I like the Lotus Valiant more. If I had the budget, and somewhere to race the finished product, I would build a Lotus Valiant replica. I have a copy of the Ron Champion book (http://www.ronchampion.net/) with his design for a Lotus Seven replica, and at a swap meet here a few years ago I came across a couple of guys making and selling chassis and suspension kits to his design. More interestingly, they had made a mould for fibreglass Lotus Eleven bodies designed to fit the Ron Champion chassis. I figured I could build my own chassis (modified to suit a slant motor), buy a body from them, get a Clifford Hyperpak manifold and put the whole thing together relatively cheaply.
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Author:  slantvaliant [ Sat Nov 11, 2006 9:32 am ]
Post subject: 

Quote:
Anyone have any experience with the triple SU intake?
That was a standard setup on Jaguar sixes for years, wasn't it? Their engines might breath a little better than ours, but they are of similar displacements.

Prowling the Jag forums might prove useful.

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