MYT 880L - 1973 Manta A 1780 Deluxe Automatic

 

Owner: Martin Dodgson

This is a 1972 Manta 1780  Deluxe Automatic in Bronze. It has been resprayed in a bronze which is slightly lighter than the original shade. I bought it earlier this year, when my long term daily driven Manta was written off by having an idiot driving into the back of it. I picked it up in Reigate, and my first journey was the 200 mile journey home to Yorkshire.
The car is totally standard, and the only change I have done is fitting a period Radio Cassette player. In the past I wouldn’t have considered any Manta 1780, due to perceived slowness, and lack of flexibility compared to the 1900, which I was used to driving. Also, the Manta A 1780 I did have before, was terribly slow and unrefined, despite having a very low mileage. This car, however has very acceptable, even good performance, and is a good motorway cruiser (quieter than my previous car – probably because of lower mileage), and is an excellent car for the 26 miles each way journey to work.
I was considering fitting a 1900 engine and autobox, but I am quite satisfied with the 1.6. I’m not a very slow driver, either (before people reading this start thinking I’m a doddering old man).

I would really recommend a Manta A Auto to anyone. They are quick (esp. 1900), and although the road tests give the results that the manuals are faster to 60 by a second or more, in practice this is only the case if you really rev the engine and change gear very quickly, which is something you don’t really want to do on your average old manual box, as the gears will make crunching sounds. 
The changes are very smooth, and at times, almost imperceptible.

So try an auto, don’t automatically choose a manual (sorry about the bad pun).

HWY 91N - 1975 Manta A 19000 SR

 

Owner: Martin Dodgson

I bought HWY91N nearly four years ago from a chap who’d had it since 1982. HWY is a 1975 Manta A 1900SR, and had been slightly modified by the time I got it. It was originally Signal Blue (bright turquoise) with black plastic seats and static seat belts. When I got it, it had been resprayed black (very good quality job), had black velour seats with lumbar adjustment and headrests (much more comfortable than the standard seats), revolution alloys, inertia reel seat belts, a glass sunroof, and an electric fuel pump. Of these, the only thing I changed was replacing the alloys with a set of SR sports wheels.
The car had 120,000 miles on when I got it, and it put it into service as my everyday car. A change of job meant I ended up doing about 55 miles a day in it, and things started wearing out, in particular the engine, which lacked torque and burned a lot of oil. At 145,000 miles it was going through a gallon a week and then would only run on three cylinders. I had the engine completely rebuilt, and an unleaded conversion done. I also had the clutch replaced. Once the engine had run in, it became very powerful and torquey, being able to pull from much lower revs in top gear and accelerate faster and quieter. This is still with the original Solex carb.
As the thing was running much healthier, I was driving it further and faster, and other things started wearing out. First, I had the rear axle replaced with a secondhand one, when the original started making loud noises, but the worst thing to go was the front subframe, which sheared as I was driving along. There was a big bang, and the steering became very "graunchy" feeling. Fortunately no other damage was done and I had a complete front subframe assembly at home with suspension, steering rack and wheels on, so I had that fitted, once I had retreived the correct engine mounts from the spare motor in my garden. (early and late engine mounts are different, as are the subframes.)
There have been many other thing which have been replaced, such as springs, brake discs, exhausts, etc, but I am still using it nearly everyday (I also use 2 FD Victors now, as well), and it has covered 170,000 miles, and is probably the best car I have ever had.