To prove his product, Dobbertin has built an S-10 pickup with an all-aluminum LS3 in the bed and backed it with his Corvette Interface Adapter that mounts the IRS plus a Mendeola SDR5 five-speed transaxle. The bed tilts just so everyone can better see Dobbertin’s IRS package.

A friend of mine just wrote a column for his magazine where he lamented the fact that his multiple projects never seem to get finished. If you’re a gearhead, then you probably have at least one and maybe five unfinished projects. If you’ve been by my shop recently, then you know that the ratio of running to non-running machines in the shop is rather pathetic. Only one of the three inside cars run and there are two more outside under the carport that are garage queens. It’s a sad but true commentary. So what have I been contemplating for the last couple of days? A new project idea, of course!

This really started a year or so ago. My friend Rick Dobbertin is an inveterate schemer. I think his brain works differently than everybody else’s. It must because he comes up with some really cool ideas sometimes. On some ideas like his Surface Orbiter I was skeptical yet he amazingly pulled it off. If you don’t know what this is, do a Google search of Rick Dobbertin’s Surface Orbiter. You will be amazed. His latest adventure is something again – completely different. Rick has created a website called Dobbertin Performance Innovations and has come up an idea to very simply package a C4/C5 Corvette independent rear suspension (IRS) for use in any car.

The plan revolves around you fitting the rear of your car with a pair of 2×4-inch rectangular tubing frame rails. With these rails in place, he offers a very nice set of forged aluminum adapters that allow you to bolt in a Corvette IRS. But because this is Dobbertin doing this, the package doesn’t begin and end with just an IRS setup in the back of a ’69 Camaro for example. That’s a slick Pro Touring plan, but certainly not original.

The next step is what Dobbertin calls Center Gravity, or CG Touring. To take the bold step into the

This is a logo that Dobbertin has come up with for Center of Gravity Touring. Note that the tires are the initials CG. Rick’s a pretty talented guy.

CG world, you immediately forgo the traditional front-engine layout and instead move to mid-engine much like a Ford GT40. But this is no kit car deal. Consider an S-10 pickup with the engine in the bed using a traditional late C6/C7 Corvette transaxle arrangement. Yes, it’s radical but with Dobbertin’s Corvette interface, it’s actually incredibly easy to create.

Dobbertin has even come up with classes of CG Touring. His Class III version uses the above scenario. With the transmission between the engine and the rear axle centerline, this creates a substantial distance from the front of the engine to the rear axle centerline. But if you want to think really radical, his Class IV plan employs the more expensive but exciting idea of using a pure transaxle arrangement that places the transmission behind the rear axle like in a Porsche or Audi rear-engined car.

But rather than use a Porsche or Audie transaxle, Dobbertin has hooked up with a company called

Mendeola Powertrain near San Diego, California where they build some very impressive transaxle assemblies. Mendeola’s SDR5 is what Dobbertin has mounted in his demonstrator S-10 pickup. The idea is to move the engine further rearward so there is only 39.5 inches from the front of the engine to the rear axle centerline. This would allow you to build a mid-engine ’69 Chevelle, for example.

My idea was just slightly more traditional. When I was a kid, I read about a company called Crown Engineering in California who offered a kit to put a small-block Chevy in the back seat of a Corvair using its stock transaxle. The Crown kit had its limitations, but I thought the idea of an all-Chevrolet mid-engine sports car was excellent. Now with Dobbertin’s Corvette interface and a Mendeola SDR5 5-speed transaxle, the weak Corvair transaxle is no longer an issue and the most pressing question remains – how much tire do you want to stuff under that Corvair?

Great ideas like this often come at a steep price. Dobbertin’s cradle is actually extremely affordable. A built all-aluminum LS3 isn’t out of the picture, but the Mendeola 5-speed transaxle is not cheap. I looked it up and with a 3.55:1 rear gear and a 0.7:1 overdrive five-speed, this sells for a little over $9,000. But think about it. Add a clutch, a cooling and fuel delivery system, a very short exhaust system with a crossflow muffler, some brakes and a decent front suspension and you have a Center of Gravity Touring car that is like nobody else’s. I think it’s an idea whose time has come.

Up close, Dobbertin’s truck is not quite finished with plumbing and a few other minor details, but you can see how trick this is. The Mendeola five-speed does use Porsche axles, but they are more than strong enough.

Will this be the next iteration of Pro Touring? My guess is probably not because the precepts do not follow American traditional car values that place the engine in the front. But there are a few car guys who love things that are not like everybody else’s so Dobbertin’s ideas have great potential. While I’m a traditionalist with a couple of Chevelle’s, I really like the idea of building a mid-engine Corvair with a killer Mendeola five-speed and fat tires that could really tear up an autocross course. Finding the time to build a car like this is a whole different question. But that doesn’t take anything away from this idea. It’s just cool.