hi folks,
I have this on other forums but i said id put up details here of my project!
i picked up this nice example in feb last year, its a low mileage 1600 ghia.
the car is built as a do it all machine to get the best use possibly out of it. It will be used as a road car, but the main idea is to use it for as many things as i can and enjoy it - track days, endurance trials, navigation trials and mutivenue autotests, road rallies etc
As it stood in feb (i appreciate its no picture to look at) but it’s a rust free 1600 ghia, with only 60 odd k on the clock, runs like a dream.
It came with some great stuff like a black ghia interior which is in incredible condition, like brand new, rs2000 rims, round lamp setup, mexico front spolier etc
Obviously the first thing was to get the body sorted, so I went at that through the summer last year prepping the body and the underside, fitting tramp bars, strengthening etc lots of undersealing and prepping the body.
The general spec so far is as follows:
Custom made 4 door cage
Cobra Monaco seats, luke harnesses
Brantz trip
RS2000 coilovers, bilsteins.
RS single leaf rear springs
RS2000 back axle
rebuilt M16 calipers, Goodridge hoses, OBP hydraulic handbrake, non servo master cyl.
2.4 quick rack
Drivetrain:
1600 xflow, ACL bearings, ARP bolts, BCF3 cam, electronic ignition, 2.25 exhaust system, bike carbs, light steel flywheel, HD clutch, steel crank pulley
so first event for the car was in feb this year, a multivenue autotest at our national racetrack, mondello. it was a fantastic event, with 5 tests spread out around the track on a mixture of the track itself and loose gravel around the outside - each to be done 5 times. The tests were fast and flowing with only two tiny reversing bits. The day went really well with no mechanicals, car drove there and drove home without a hitch
so fast forward march, and its first endurance rally - 300 km of road mileage and 60km of tough stages on forestry tracks, logging tracks, stately homes, horse racecourse grounds, and 4 laps of a national kart track which was great fun.
after the first 12.5km stage around the outer grounds of a golf course, it was so rough and rutted i exited the stage with a broken handbrake cable, a speedo cable ripped out of my gearbox and a fuel leak.
so with wet mud dripping from under the car i had to get the speedo reattached or the rally would be over already with no trip meter. With some bending, bashing, zip tieing and jb weld, i was half an hour down but i had a trip. Covered in mud head to toe we were on the road again. the rest of the day went (relatively) without too many problems, got lost a few times and messed up a few tests, but made it to the end which was my goal
few pics at some stages of the event
So after the endurance rally, i decided to whip the engine out and give it a bit of a freshen up and bit more of a kick.
I renewed all seals etc, and fitted a BCF3, ACL bearings, ARP's and a steel flywheel and crank pulley among some other bits and pieces.
so it went from this
to this
to this
and so to the next event, ALMC's MVAT sunday 07 april.
Was a great day with 21 tests on a variety of surfaces, gravel, concrete, sheds, farm yards and lanes. the engine itself performed superb and sounds absolutely brilliant but my day was cut short due to a catch 22 situation i was in - i was having serious hot start problems due to a problem with the carb on it, and because I couldn’t turn it off unless i was on a hill, it kept overheating with the useless standard fan as the engine was not getting enough air flow on the tests at full revs all the time. So i decided to save the engine and call it a day at test 17 as i still had the drive home.
Immediate modifications before the next event is bin the twin choke, fit my bike carbs and fit a nice electric fan on a switch
All in all a great day of much sideways action
I have this on other forums but i said id put up details here of my project!
i picked up this nice example in feb last year, its a low mileage 1600 ghia.
the car is built as a do it all machine to get the best use possibly out of it. It will be used as a road car, but the main idea is to use it for as many things as i can and enjoy it - track days, endurance trials, navigation trials and mutivenue autotests, road rallies etc
As it stood in feb (i appreciate its no picture to look at) but it’s a rust free 1600 ghia, with only 60 odd k on the clock, runs like a dream.
It came with some great stuff like a black ghia interior which is in incredible condition, like brand new, rs2000 rims, round lamp setup, mexico front spolier etc
Obviously the first thing was to get the body sorted, so I went at that through the summer last year prepping the body and the underside, fitting tramp bars, strengthening etc lots of undersealing and prepping the body.
The general spec so far is as follows:
Custom made 4 door cage
Cobra Monaco seats, luke harnesses
Brantz trip
RS2000 coilovers, bilsteins.
RS single leaf rear springs
RS2000 back axle
rebuilt M16 calipers, Goodridge hoses, OBP hydraulic handbrake, non servo master cyl.
2.4 quick rack
Drivetrain:
1600 xflow, ACL bearings, ARP bolts, BCF3 cam, electronic ignition, 2.25 exhaust system, bike carbs, light steel flywheel, HD clutch, steel crank pulley
so first event for the car was in feb this year, a multivenue autotest at our national racetrack, mondello. it was a fantastic event, with 5 tests spread out around the track on a mixture of the track itself and loose gravel around the outside - each to be done 5 times. The tests were fast and flowing with only two tiny reversing bits. The day went really well with no mechanicals, car drove there and drove home without a hitch
so fast forward march, and its first endurance rally - 300 km of road mileage and 60km of tough stages on forestry tracks, logging tracks, stately homes, horse racecourse grounds, and 4 laps of a national kart track which was great fun.
after the first 12.5km stage around the outer grounds of a golf course, it was so rough and rutted i exited the stage with a broken handbrake cable, a speedo cable ripped out of my gearbox and a fuel leak.
so with wet mud dripping from under the car i had to get the speedo reattached or the rally would be over already with no trip meter. With some bending, bashing, zip tieing and jb weld, i was half an hour down but i had a trip. Covered in mud head to toe we were on the road again. the rest of the day went (relatively) without too many problems, got lost a few times and messed up a few tests, but made it to the end which was my goal
few pics at some stages of the event
So after the endurance rally, i decided to whip the engine out and give it a bit of a freshen up and bit more of a kick.
I renewed all seals etc, and fitted a BCF3, ACL bearings, ARP's and a steel flywheel and crank pulley among some other bits and pieces.
so it went from this
to this
to this
and so to the next event, ALMC's MVAT sunday 07 april.
Was a great day with 21 tests on a variety of surfaces, gravel, concrete, sheds, farm yards and lanes. the engine itself performed superb and sounds absolutely brilliant but my day was cut short due to a catch 22 situation i was in - i was having serious hot start problems due to a problem with the carb on it, and because I couldn’t turn it off unless i was on a hill, it kept overheating with the useless standard fan as the engine was not getting enough air flow on the tests at full revs all the time. So i decided to save the engine and call it a day at test 17 as i still had the drive home.
Immediate modifications before the next event is bin the twin choke, fit my bike carbs and fit a nice electric fan on a switch
All in all a great day of much sideways action
