(3) The Donor Car
After months of searching I found what I was looking for.
A 1967 registered Healey Sprite that had been reshelled and looked to be in great condition. Much of the work had already been done, the car had a Quaife LSD with hardened half-shafts, the frontline front suspension conversion that gave some negative camber and allowed fitment of decent adjustable dampers, rear telescopic damper conversion, 9.5" front discs with 4 pot calipers and the shell was a round wheel arch one that meant the car could run 14" wheels with no problem.
The body was immaculate and the car had no rust anywhere, which was vital for me because I didn't want to mess about stripping it and rebuilding it from the ground up. I like driving cars, not building them.
This car also had a huge spec engine and Toyota 5 speed gearbox. Which had me in somewhat of a quandary. Had I found the car I needed that I could just fill up with gas and use and forget the K series project?
The figures looked good, the engine spec was the sort of thing that A series boffins would kill for -
1460cc A+ Block, Omega Pistons, Carrillo Rods, Billet Steel Crank, Lightweight Alloy Flywheel all connected to a KAD 16v head with twin Webber 45's. The dyno sheets said 170BHP and after driving it I believed it. The toyota box felt great and I was left seriously thinking I might have stuck gold.
Then I looked at the huge folder of documentation I got with the car and worked out that in the two years it actually got used the engine was rebuilt/refreshed 5 times at a total cost of well over £10k!!!! I also cringed everytime it revved round to 9000RPM and just knew that by the time I got half way across France I would start to regret it. In fact by the time I got back home from Devon after collecting it, the engine had dumped oil, started overheating and developed a slight knock, that I knew would only get worse.
The K Series conversion was back on!
A 1967 registered Healey Sprite that had been reshelled and looked to be in great condition. Much of the work had already been done, the car had a Quaife LSD with hardened half-shafts, the frontline front suspension conversion that gave some negative camber and allowed fitment of decent adjustable dampers, rear telescopic damper conversion, 9.5" front discs with 4 pot calipers and the shell was a round wheel arch one that meant the car could run 14" wheels with no problem.
The body was immaculate and the car had no rust anywhere, which was vital for me because I didn't want to mess about stripping it and rebuilding it from the ground up. I like driving cars, not building them.
This car also had a huge spec engine and Toyota 5 speed gearbox. Which had me in somewhat of a quandary. Had I found the car I needed that I could just fill up with gas and use and forget the K series project?
The figures looked good, the engine spec was the sort of thing that A series boffins would kill for -
1460cc A+ Block, Omega Pistons, Carrillo Rods, Billet Steel Crank, Lightweight Alloy Flywheel all connected to a KAD 16v head with twin Webber 45's. The dyno sheets said 170BHP and after driving it I believed it. The toyota box felt great and I was left seriously thinking I might have stuck gold.
Then I looked at the huge folder of documentation I got with the car and worked out that in the two years it actually got used the engine was rebuilt/refreshed 5 times at a total cost of well over £10k!!!! I also cringed everytime it revved round to 9000RPM and just knew that by the time I got half way across France I would start to regret it. In fact by the time I got back home from Devon after collecting it, the engine had dumped oil, started overheating and developed a slight knock, that I knew would only get worse.
The K Series conversion was back on!
posted by jamesm at 1:24 PM
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