I have been thinking about this for a while also for another reason. I run a vintage Chevy II edmunds at vintage meets and have had a blast the last couple of years with the full race Chevy II. I have the Tilton clutch and starter in it but it is still not really self starting, and not really enough gear to start from a dead stop. I'm starting get the urge for a sprint car with a trans as most vintage guys end up going to eventually for ease. But I love my midget so....

I have been toying with the idea of building a cage skeleton that would mount an R1 with trans to the Chevy II motor plate and drive line. In my case the R1 output sprocket would have to be mounted about 4.5" to the right and about 1.5" up. This would give me a true self start and gears to drive around pits easily. Would be nice to try a road-course with the car also. We do not run very hard.

My plan would be to have an aluminum bearing housing that has a shaft in it that has a sprocket on the engine side and a Chevy crank flange on the other. This would bolt to the motor plate using the torque ball mounting circle and put the fake crank flange in the correct place in relation to the rest of the drive line. The R1 would have a drive shaft of some kind that would connect to the output shaft of the trans and ride in a bearing mounted on the motor plate on the other end. This shaft would have a sprocket on it, with a chain connecting to the fake crankshaft. The chain/drive belt could be fully enclosed and all would be in front of the motor plate.

This sound doable?