I will take the shaft anyday… Cant believe I just said that…but…there you go… Bahahaha
the same mountainbike: My Dad’s first car was a brand new 1926 Ford “T” roadster. $304 FOB Denver, CO. I have photos of it. He told me it was easily maintained/repaired with common tools or a “Ford wrench” (hammer).
I remember an old (I think Car Craft) magazine that featured a 1964 Chevelle with an Allison V-12 WW2 aircraft engine. It had 6 Carter AFB 4V carbs. The driver’s seat was moved 3 feet back. I was wondering what the transmission was then remembered it was an “In-Out” box. With 1,700 hp and a “gazillion” pounds of torque a transmission was not needed.
Chain drive… that goes way back!
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=chain+drive+antique+trucks&qpvt=chain+dive+antique+trucks&qpvt=chain+dive+antique+trucks&qpvt=chain+dive+antique+trucks&FORM=IGRE
Think the old "C Cab " Mack was a chain drive ,I imagine the early Diamond T ,had a chain drive also ,turning power at right angles has a little loss ,but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in most applications. But in the world of " Rube Goldberg " you never know what might be driving what .
There are some “C-cabs” in the link I posted. Chain drive works at low speeds, and there were no turnpikes in those days. Here’s some images of modern “chain drives”. 
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=army+tank+images&qpvt=army+tank+images&qpvt=army+tank+images&qpvt=army+tank+images&FORM=IGRE
Yeah it was a big rig and would scare the heck out of you just looking at it. I don’t know if he was ever watching us out the window looking at his trucks but never said anything anyway. I’ll be it would have been an interesting ride pulling a house and having the chain break.
@Sarge,I remember reading that article ,I was thinking maybe Hotrod magazine,but maybe it was carcraft anyway it was a custom chassis with the body sorta setting on it,was this thing a two speed ?(with each gear an overdrive )? Must have had a torque converter coupling.
Ever see a picture of a Double Allison? 3420 CID ,24 burbling cylinders (dont know if it ever made it into production or not .
At the tractor pulls around here (in the modifieds ) the Allisons were pretty popular ,strangely enough they didnt do good in the lower weight classes ,too much torque ,they wouldnt hook up to the clay track,you had to get heavy before they really shined,These engines despite their size where very hi performance for the day,some if I recall correctly had mechanical superchargers incorperated into the design,Dont know know what the tractor pullers output was ,but I heard they were running alcohol, Twenty or so years back it cost 2K to put a set of bearings into one .
Back in WW2 ,Charles Lindbergh made a contribution to the war effort by showing the pilots of the P-38 Lightnings how to eke the best fuel mileage out of their Allison V12s (as you may surmise ,Mr Lindbergh new a thing or two about range anxiety over water )to make this story short ,the pilots would return with gas to spare ,rather then running out of gas somewhere over the Pacific.
My Grandfather was a Machinist …he came over from Italy in 1925… He worked at many many places but one was the “Autocar”…I used to think he was nuts when he said that name to me…it never made sense when he told me the truck he used to machine sprockets for were made at the Autocar…
Only made sense to me later in yrs…but while he was still alive. He would tell me of the big chain drives and the sprockets he would have to machine…etc…
He was a major influence on me being a Gear Head presently. He was born in 1899 and passed when he was 99… I sure do miss that guy…and the stories, the projects…man I miss everything about him.
Boy did he have stories…working as a Machinist thru all the War Years as well…tons of stories on the Minutiae of Machine Work
Blackbird