Another Alpine GTA Project - Almost finished

[Notanotherturbo]

After a couple of years of toil and money my GTA project is almost finished. Has been in regular use all summer but still some minor snagging and tidying issues to sort out.

Wanted to build a GTA that could be used as a daily driver with good economy. Picked up a very cheap car with some minor damage. Car had sat for a few years and needed more remedial work than I hoped. Chassis was good but, radiator, calipers and discs, steel water pipes, suspension were all changed and mainly uprated in the process. A low mileage 2.9 injection engine from an Espace was sourced and fitted (PRV but no carbs which was essential to my daily driver brief) and the fuel system modified to suit. Car then went off to be repaired and painted and I fitted an old set of AZEV wheels I had sat in the garage.

Car is really good fun to drive, 1100kg means a useful ptw of around 150-160 per ton and it feels about as quick as my old 182 Clio but with better bottom end power. Very responsive. Excellent value when you look at what a really nice Esprit 2.2 would cost you now and fay nicer to drive in my opinion. And economy is excellent - 28-30 around town and 34-38 on the motorway and always turns heads and gets lots of interest. Classic insurance also so works out cheaper to run than a hot hatch.

Loads of pics of build and finished car here

http://s139.photobucket.com/user/Renaulttony/libra...

[Flatinfourth]

Often fancied oneof these, but converted to the 24 valve engine, i presume it's been done by a few now. Even in something as revolting as a Citroen XM you can feel how nice that engine is. Good to see one being saved

[mrnikko]

That is simply beautiful, much better than look how I modified my german washing machine ,i also really want one of these cars.

[Notanotherturbo]

There are 2 24v ones in the country and a few more in France. Its a very nice conversion when done properly, giving around 220bhp and makes an unbelievably good noise, engine drops in on the same mounts but you have to play around with lots of other bits as the donor engines are all transverse (XM and 605). The engines are very hard to get hold of now and all need rebuilding and parts for them are very expensive.

[LanceRS]

Great looking car, well done for thinking a bit left field and rescuing this one. Always loved these.

[Flatinfourth]

Notanotherturbo said:

There are 2 24v ones in the country and a few more in France. Its a very nice conversion when done properly, giving around 220bhp and makes an unbelievably good noise, engine drops in on the same mounts but you have to play around with lots of other bits as the donor engines are all transverse (XM and 605). The engines are very hard to get hold of now and all need rebuilding and parts for them are very expensive.

The 24 Valve is not a problem engine, not like the older 12 valve ones were. No one sensible would undertake rebuilding one of those. I used to look after plenty of XMs, and even now it shouldnt be too hard to find a worthless but cared for XM with proper antifreeze in it and very low mileage. i have to say if i was building one it would get a bog standard 24 valve, with decent stand alone management that could work with the compression ratio, and a pair of small turbochargers. Would make it the 911 killer it should always have been from the very beginning

[Notanotherturbo]

11 SORN or licensed XMs in the whole country! The engine has some weaknesses that need addressing to turbo it, everything would need to be customer made - would end up costing more than the car. A friend of mine has a couple of engines available but I wanted a cheap easy transplant, I wasn't after big power, I have other cars including another GTA with over 300bhp