Triumph Sports Cars

Hey guys I have a 74 Spitfire that I bought as a full race car. At the time the guy took the stock motor out and dropped in a Alpha Romeo 1750 engine in it. I bought the whole car and was doing autocross races with it but got bored with that. Did a track day with it and it was a blast. Wanted to do more so a buddy of mine said that I needed to do a hill climb. I got it ready for that and went up and did the Dragon Hill Climb up in North Carolina. Little did I know that a carburetor motor lost a lot of the power that high up. The first run was really slow and the oil pressure was off the chart. Got it back down the hill and ready to go for the next run. Well made it to the top and the motor let loose. That is where the fun began.

My buddy let me drive his Jensen Healy with a rotary in it and all I could say was WOW!!!!!!! He talked me into dropping a rotary into the spitfire chassis. So here goes the swap. Here is a picture of the before and will post more of the end product.

Ok now to pull that messed up Alpha motor out. Here is a pic of the pan when I pulled it apart. Hence the reason for a new motor LOL

Now on to modifying the whole car to make it track ready. A little bit at a time. Here is the outside in race form LOL, and then I had to put in a FIA certified fuel cell.

The fuel cell was a pain in the butt to get mounted in the trunk.

What was even harder was making the RX7 13B rotary fit. I have been working on this for probably 6 months. Trying to find the right place to put the motor mounts.


The temp motor mounts mounted to the front cross bar on the frame. Used Jeep CJ7 motor mounts. Used a 12A front cover so as to use the front holes as motor mounts




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2014 09:43PM by toyzforme.

Then I had to shorten the shifter linkage in order to move the shifter up so it didn't sit so far back and make it hard to shift gears. The stock RX7 tranny sits pretty far back and made shifting feel awkward.

Getting closer, its almost done and didn't know it would take this long. I am actually happy with the turn out. With the S4 rotary they had what you call the 5th and 6th ports that were opened to allow more air into the rotor housing. They used pressure off the stock exhaust to use actuators to open the valves. Well being as I wasn't using the stock exhaust I had to use a RPM switch to turn on a small pump to assist in opening those valves. The little things we do to go fast LOL.

Then I had to have a custom header made. The muffler shop had to cut more of the fire wall than what already was cut. I wished he would have stacked them on top of each other rather than side by side but he did a good job. The only problem I have is when it comes time to remove it, it will be next to impossible to get it off unless you pull the motor. I used a Racing Beat header kit that was connected to a Racing Beat presilencer and then on back to a Racing Beat muffler. I had to do all of this as some tracks have a sound limit and if you have ever heard a rotary at 8K rpms it is loud as hell.

Then with the whole transmission tunnel missing I had to pretty much make my own. I was able to salvage some of the previous engine aluminum, but had to make most of it myself. Let me tell you I hate metal work as you end up with so many cuts on your hands.

I think the only thing I had left was to finish out the roll cage as the last tech inspection I did they didn't like just the hoop behind me and wanted a full cage. Kinda overkill but I should be safe if it ever rolls. The whole car weighs in at 1500 lbs and the motor is putting out over 150 horses. I have had it on the track once since the build and it was pretty darn fast. I am pleased with the job and hope I can make it through a whole race season without the engine blowing on me.

Well let me know what y'all think of my little hotrod?

I think it's a hell of an achievement to get this done, and moreover within the original bonnet profile. Hope it goes well and brings you much pleasure.

It's a shame though that classic race cars have to be spoilt with these ugly roll bars, not the case over here thank goodness, as anyone who's seen racing at Prescott or Goodwood will notice.

Ivor

Yea I didn't want to do the full cage as well but they said if I wan't to do wheel to wheel racing that I to have it. Then I saw a video on youtube of a spitfire (at a track I race at) break an axle and the guy rolled the car about 3 or 4 times. Awesome in car video of it. The full cage saved him and most of the car so I guess that is why they want it LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2014 08:30PM by toyzforme.

Umm, where are the parts from the Alfa engine?

I could use some of them for my Alfa powered projects.