Triumph Sports Cars

Another new member saying hello.
My car is a 1974 Triumph Spitfire MK1V which started life as a 1300cc 4 cylinder, a few years ago got upgraded to a 2000cc six, and then finally last winter saw the swap to 3500 Rover V8.

I was reasonably happy with the 2000 straight six conversion but then a friend decided to put the Rover V8 in his MGB GT I helped him with this and then he let me drive it! - that was it - I had to have a V8 in my Spitfire. Luckily I found your excellent site early on and was spurred on by Carsten Ullerup's conversion report.
I took the car off the road last October and had it back on the road in with a V8 installed by June this year, just in time for the Triumph Sports Six Club Peak Run in Derbyshire.
The engine and gearbox came out of a TR7 which had been converted to TR8 Spec - the body of which was completely beyond salvage.

My Spitfire has the following spec:
3.5Lt Rover V8
Lt77 5 speed gearbox
TR8 propshaft
Modified Renault 21 radiator
Modified Peugeot 205 fans
Offenhauser manifold
Edlebrock/Webber carb
Electric fuel pump
Modified MGBGT stainless block hugger manifolds
Twin Phoenix stainless back boxes
Currently has standard Spitfire rear diff and suspension
Uprated GT6 front suspension
Modified GT6 Glassfibre bonnett.

I have lots of photo's of the conversion and intend to write a 'how it was done' in the hope of returning the favour and giving inspiration to someone else teetering on the brink of converting a Spitfire.
Graham Bingham
Derby
U.K.

Wow - Those two photos sure look great!

I can't wait to see your full How It Was Done article (and more photos).

Very nice, clean conversion. Congrats, and welcome.
When you say, "Twin Phoenix stainless back boxes " to what are you referring?

Jim

Hi Jim,
Sorry I was not allowing for conversion from British to American - back boxes are exhaust silencers or I believe you call them mufflers?

I'll soon get the hang of it!

Graham

Well done and Welcome!

Please do post the "how it was done" soon. We had a gent just a few days back requesting info on what engines to swap in a Spit and had ruled out V8s.

Your comment that referencing the performance difference is what people need to hear, and see, through your successes.

By the way, ask your friend to post his MGB GT conversion as well!

Looks good , what did you do to the hood for extra clearance ?

Hi Gordon,
The hood took some thinking about, I already had a glassfibre GT6 one on the car because I previously ran it with the straight six,
With the engine in the position I have it, and using an offenhauser manifold and edelbrock carb I could just about shut the hood without an air filter on but the gap between the carb top and the hood was very tight.
My friend Jim who helped me with the job was trying to get me to go down the subtle route and hide the conversion as much as possible (as he had with his BGT V8), but I wanted something more obvious without going over the top and had in mind the type of air scoop found on Cobra's.

I ended up fitting the circular air filter you see in the photo and cutting a hole in the glassfibre hood to allow it to close around it. I then set too and fabricated a frame in thin aluminium strip and riveted and bonded this onto the hood, I then covered this in cardboard to get the shape I wanted. Then came the labour intensive part, I then covered the cardboard in glass fibre matt and resin followed by glass fibre filler and many hours rubbing down and refilling before I was satisfied with the result.

I only have a couple of photo's taken since I completed it at present but I think you can get the idea from them. I think it achieves what I wanted. From the side it follows the line of the top of the front wing and looks sufficiently good in the car infront's rear view mirror for them to think "What the hell is that behind me?".

I will take more photo's soon and promise to get on with my how it was done, now that I have finished fitting a new kitchen for my wife.
The first photo shows the results of my spray job and the one after is work in progress.

Graham