Whistling along Colin Chapman way at Brands Hatch at May's TVR Tuscan racing was this gorgeous S. The curious noise brought  quizzical looks as mutterings of "Turbo?" and "Supercharger?" filled the air. Owner Lee Knieriem tells the story...

"It all came about with the need for more power, so I took the usual route of looking at V8S's and a couple of Griffs. The 'S's were all either leggy, really dear, or dodgy colours, and the Griffs just didn't have the seat of the pants driving experience of the 'S's. So I asked around for any bolt on mods. I tried Turbo Technics for their twin turbo convertions, but they had stopped producing them due to reliability problems.

Then someone found a supercharger that had supposedly been brought from America to be fitted to a hill climb Escort Cosworth project.  I bought the charger plus CAD machined alloy injector housing for £700, and met with an engine builder from RPM Engineering to talk about a suitable rebuild. He duly stripped the engine to a bare block, lightened the crank, flywheel, fitted low compression forged pistons with stronger rods and better bottom end bolts.

While this was going on I stripped out the engine bay and had the front section of the chassis re-sprayed by P.R Wood Motor bodies of Rochford, and fitted 300mm drilled front discs with Willwood calipers and Sierra rear discs and calipers (as V8 'S's). The engine was then fitted along with a Cosworth Group A clutch, and the inlet manifold machined down to accept a base plate to build the box for the charger to sit on. With the charger fitted the pullies were fitted with a crank position sensor for the new injection ECU, and a belt tensioner bracket fabricated to hold the tension wheel. Even the water pump pulley was junked and replaced with a made from scratch alloy item, as the original fouled the belt.

A trip to Haywood and Scott followed for the stainless 'easy flow' exhaust and pipe work to hold the two Ramair filters. The bonnet was tried in the vain hope of a fit, but a hole was cut in to allow it to shut, so Phil Wood made the scoop to cover the twirly bits, we tried again and it still wouldn't shut, so a bulge was then put in the scoop.

The ECU was then wired in (an Alpha Webber system), and then it was finally mapped by Aldon Automotive of Stourbridge, Birmingham. The charger is only running 5psi of boost at the moment (we geared it twice engine speed as a starting point) so power is down on what I had expected. The power at time of writing is around 250bhp at 5200 rpm, with 295 pound/foot torque at 3400 rpm. With the charger spinning a bit faster (it will when its run in!) 300bhp should be easily obtainable. In hindsight I wouldn't have bothered because nineteen months is a long time to drive around in a Morris Minor dreaming of the screaming charger, and wondering if it will ever be done, or would it self destruct on the first turn of the key. But know its finished I will hopefully enjoy it for a few years and maybe do another project. How about a four wheel drive griff with Nitros Oxide?!

Thanks to Lee for telling us the story... can't wait until it's run in!