Say Hi to Eleanor
This A series V8 was the combination of a few owners, firstly the car below in red primer. This car had been partly restored by a guy called Andy as far as I'm led to believe, his concept was to Build a V8 a series,
As you can see no expense was spared on the engine and it looked fantastic, he also had or made a superb new tunnel and bulkhead modification for the car, approx £3k was spent on the engine and accessories
The new Engine has following spec.
The V8 is a complete new build, from fresh SD1 block.
I'm not sure why the owner of this car never did get to finish the project, but the car had some pretty bad warping to the rear quarters where the replacement repair sections were added, the front wings were after market and as we all know they fit as good as a baked bean tin. The car was then sold of to a new owner in N, Ireland.
Nelson then searched for another A series which was deemed to have good body work, a white a series was then found, which had a mint red interior and had been sent to a body shop to be restored in 1998 or 1999 and had the nice price tag of £4000 for the work done as far as I'm aware. This car had won the concourse award at billing in 2000.
The work then began to install the V8 into the white concourse Car, the modified bulkhead and tunnel were cut out of the first car. and installed into the one pictured above. The exhaust system and the new Adjustable Gas spax were also transferred .
This made an excellent job of the second white car that had been purchased by Nelson. The engine was then transplanted to the new car.
The following pictures show the engine bay painted in white, The front cross member was painted and you can see the V8 engine mounts welded in place on it, with the corresponding piece below the manifold on the engine block.
The battery is in a carbon fiber box in the boot/trunk and in its place is a Lockhead remote servo. This is a simple job to install which is fitted to a lot of kit cars, with only a small master cylinder directly replacing the original servo and a single pipe from it to the remote servo on the right, which is then ‘plumbed in’ in the normal way which then goes direct to the front brakes and is interrupted to the rear by a willwood adjustable brake balancer.
You can also see how the bulkhead and tunnel were made that came from the first car . Where the master cylinder sits would have been the distance from the windshield to the original bulkhead.
In other V8 conversions the heater box has been moved to the battery tray or under the dash on the passenger side. An 80’s VW polo box is the most common used as it is a small unit containing matrix and fan. A new fabricated heater box using 2 6” kenlowes fans pushing air through a mocal heater matrix (normally an oil cooler), which was expensive at almost £200, but looks great and demists the windows quickly while the center vents are left to blow cool air.
Click on pics below to enlarge
..........Now the engine in it's new home..........
The front seats where changed to leather 1981 Porsche in keeping with the age and style of the car. The rear seats and door/side panels are original, but black was added to give a more sporting feel. The controls in the center are for brake bias, nitrous, manual fan control and battery cut-off
The beauty is it is all original. The only additions being a broad speed front spoiler made by Trevor Lewis, new revolution alloys and manta 400 chrome mirrors. The bonnet pins have been recessed, which you can just pick out as the alloy dishes half way down the wing
The clocks are original SR/GTE including the three center clocks, the rev counter was sent away for recalibration to suit the V8 engine. Usually the dashboard is fake wood, but its replaced with brushed aluminum which ties in with the center console switch panels and suits the seventies look. (If you own and A-series, I do not know where to get the alloy dash panels, sorry.) ‘Elvis Sunglasses’ style Opel steering wheel completes the effect of a truly beautiful car.
I bought the car of Nelson in November 2003 and both Nelson and I thought the car didn't need a lot of work to finish the car of apart from the gearbox and rear axle to get the gearing correct, but this was not to be the work that had been previous done body wise had been bluffed in quite a few places, There was nothing major just loads of small holes that had been dummied up rather than welded up so the work began to restore this car in the manner she deserved.
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