V8 Retro classic ground up rebuild

[cwin]

I've just nearly finished this project so I thought I'd post a few pictures and spec about it for those who are interested. Also I've found people who are brilliant at certain trades like welding, one off machining ect and thought it may help others who want odd one off jobs doing like making and machining drive flanges from Triumph TR4 to Chevy ect.
The car was a LHD Tr4 A ( independent suspension ) car which came in from California, picture show body off and chassis refurb inc acid dipping the body, full FIA cage was fitted to help stiffen up the chassis to handle the torque from the 6:3 ltr LS3 V8 crate engine and new Tr 6060 six speed gearbox, Willwood brakes with duel sermvos, one for the clutch and one for the brakes, the diff is a reconditioned Monaro LSD, car weighs 830 kg,
I'll try to post the pictures in some sort of order from this,,,,










To this......

Edited by cwin on Thursday 25th January 21:09

Edited by cwin on Saturday 28th April 08:09

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That's it for tonight,,, my heads gone posting pictures.

[cwin]

RetroWheels said:

That's going to be a lot of fun and a propper handfull when it's finished Craig , build quality looks lovely.
Will it be Road or Race ?

Cheers Darren

May let Danny do the odd Bernies V8 race in it if it handles good enough, it's mainly a road car to shoot over to do some of the euro passes in.

[cwin]

Custom exhaust made including modifying the manifolds,






Cross over pipe made for that nice V8 burble,

Edited by cwin on Saturday 15th April 07:29

[cwin]

Maty said:

Wow! Just wow!!

Any videos of the noise?

It's being wired at the moment and should be finished Monday, we had it running but they sent the wrong map sensor lead for the loom so it only runs for a few seconds, which is quite annoying.
I'll post a video when it's running properly.

[cwin]

Steering was tricky to clear the big V8 and convert to right hand drive at same time, made a rose jointed bush to support the shaft before the bend,

[cwin]

TheRocket said:

Have you done most of the work yourself ? Also sorry for direct/rude question if you don't mind but curious to know what kind of ball park figure one would budget for a project like this ? Would love to do something similar one day, had ideas of an M3 engined TR6 but I think I prefer your approach.

Yes, I've done a lot of the work myself but also had specialists do some work that I couldn't do ect, the proble with costs when you do something like this is a, what condition of car you start with, and b, how good you want it to be when is finished.
Cheapest way is to find a mint car to start with and do the engine conversion, the body off restoration works inc new floors, sill, wings, re spray ect will cost as much if not more than buying a nice car say 15/20k.
The crate engine kits are around 8k which includes gearbox, ecu, engine wiring loom, even comes with accelerator pedal. For someone to do the engine swap and make the mounts ect is about 3k.
The good thing about the LS engines is they weigh less than the 4 cylinder cast iron unit that came out, and as they are so short you can get them right back behind the centreline of the wheels, this car has a 50/50 weight split.
I used a guy in Birmingham to fit the engine called Craig Taylor (Dyno Torque) as he has done many LS engine swaps in all sorts of cars and 3 previously for me, aTVR Sagaris and a Mazda RX7 and Rx8, they were all brilliant.
If you buy a nice car then I recon you can do the swap for as little as 10k if you find a second hand engine or 15/18k if you buy new,

Hope this helps..

This is how far back the engine can go to get near perfect weight distribution.

Edited by cwin on Saturday 15th April 21:50

[cwin]

MDMA . said:

Taking shape now and looks great.

( was at Kevs when you picked the GT3 up on the trailer ).

Cheers.
Should be taking it to him for an MOT in a few weeks.

[cwin]

J4CKO said:

TR4's are nice cars but dont grab me generally, but that is perfection, ticks so many boxes, look forward to seeing it complete.

Thank you.

Ive always loved the classic shape of them but fancied one with the grunt of an SunbeamTiger.

Edited by cwin on Monday 17th April 09:25

[cwin]

MDMA . said:

Might pop up and have a look while it's there. What's the final bhp on it? 450 plus? Going to be quick on the road

Yes, no problem,

Power is 430 bhp and same torque standard but 500 is easy with a cam swap.
It will be about 500 per tonne at its curent weight.

[cwin]

Wiring should be finished hopefully today.

[cwin]

CharlieAlphaMike said:

I'm not normally a fan of modifying classics like this but well done you. This is on a different scale and looks like a quality build. Having owned a beautifully restored TR6 (original UK injection model), I can only imagine what this will handle and brake (drums on the rear) like

Thanks Charlie,

I'm lucky enough to already own a resored concourse Tr4 in red and have decided to modify this one to make a grand tourer for a few euro trips ect, I wanted something that was going to cruise at 80 all day and be nice and smooth, hence the new running gear and V8. With my gearing as it is in 6th 80mph should be about 1800rpm,
The drums are better than you think, and rear braking should only be about 25 %, I've put a brake bias in so I can set it up, the guys who race these in the historics don't suffer with the rear drums even after a 3hr race, I've already fitted the finned type just in case I race it.

This is my red car,

[cwin]

CharlieAlphaMike said:

Nice I can see you've upgraded the front brakes and spotted the finned rear drums. Most of the braking will be done on the front anyway so I'm sure it will be fine and as you said, there probably won't be that much difference in weight. Getting the power onto the road will be 'fun' I'm sure. Great work on your part

This was my '6'. The pictures are rubbish (scanned copies of pictures taken on an old SLR before anyone had heard about digital camera's - not that many years ago)! It was a very dark BRG.

[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/EC1jdxeZ[/url]

Nice, and in the best colour,

[cwin]

Well it's all wired up and running now, trial drive down the driveway and back, I can't upload the video as it says the file is too large,

[cwin]

Not much to cut away in the engine bay just the bulkhead needed widening ect, no cutting to the chassis other than fitting new engine mounts and extra gussets ect.
I've only driven it down the drive a few times as it needs a few jobs for the Mot ie seat belts ect.
It's very smooth and the servo assisted clutch is fantastic.

[cwin]

Finished it for summer

[cwin]

MDMA . said:

Looks great. Was asking Kev just before Christmas how it was coming along. Bet it feels awesome on the road.

It does, drives perfect even at speed, but it should do everything is new and i am use to setting cars up for racing so the geometry is spot on.