This is my 1500 (now 1800) 2105. Ive had it for over a year now and its my second car. Ive been brought up in a classic car family and decided it was my turn to have something that I could play with. I live in leicestershire and bough the car on ebay form Reading. Made the drive home and didn’t miss a beat. The car already had the weber conversion but the linkages needed reworking (an austin 7 linkage now works the carburettor) . After the first few weeks of cleaning it and sorting out the oil leaks, the clutch slave cylinder and generally polishing the body to bring the red back I was ready for some aesthetic modifications. I bought a set of 15” black spoke alloys with a red pin stripe. These were a bargain as the previous owner had to take them off his Fiat Punto. They’re a bit boy racer but I like it, Plus being a wider tyre, it took away some of the ladas boat-like handling. Next was a classic wooden roof rack (whats cooler than a roof rack?) and a classic wooden mountney racing steering wheel.
Next was the Exhaust and to start me and my dad made up a cat-back exhaust using a back box from an Audi TT. Looks the beans with a chrome back box and twin pipes out of the back. While we were at the back of the car, my dad came up the an idea to paint the back panel satin black like a cortina, and I’m glad he mentioned it as it looks really good. After a few weeks we decided it was just too loud so we fitted a MK3 cortina silencer and its still loud but not unbearable.
The next job was to lower the car. The shock absorbers needed changing so I bought a full set of shock absorbers and Polyurethane bushes all round. Instead of going on holiday, I booked a week off work and set on with changing the shocks and bushes all round, at the same time, taking two coils out of the springs. If your thinking about installing polyurethane bushes id recumbent plenty of time, WD40, patients and a dad who’s willing the help out. After many swear words it was completely worth it, the handling now feels like a normal car, no more lada wobble. And with the lowered stance it looked perfect for what I wanted.
Recently I bought a performance four branch exhaust manifold and down pipe. After inquiring if it would fit a right handed model I was confident it would be a weekend job….. Oh how I was wrong. The steering box, the clutch master cylinder and the new down pipe would not fit. So With the inlet off we had the choice to modify it to fit. So we did. I bought the push bike out for work and we spent a week after work cutting, grinding and welding the manifold to fit. Painted it white to look like 70’s Ferrari’s f1 cars, heat wrapped the starter motor, put the inlet back together and now its working.
Car update 4/12/17. Acquired a lada nova 1.6 engine. needed a full rebuild as it was in someones driveway and only the front of the car was left. Hard to find however as I knew of a bore and stroker kit available in the Ukraine to makes it an 1800. in addition to this kit, me and my dad spent a few months building it up with a high lift cam, port and polished head, balanced internals and a lightened flywheel. this with the weber 32/36 carb that came with the car it made a huge difference. It made for a great experience and on its first long trip to silverstone I had my grandad in the car who egged me on and in he’s words “with power to spare”. Fitting as we used a lot of his tools to build it. This turned out to also sadly be his last trip to a race track as he passed a couple months later.
A few months later i happened to come across what could be the holy grail for lada engines. A inlet manifold for a right hand drive lada that fits twin 40 carburettors. This came with twin dellortos and with some fiddling and time we amazed to set them up. They could do with setting up professionally but they aren’t far off and a couple months after me and my girlfriend went on a 1000 mile road tip round cornwall, car didn’t miss a beat and even managed an average of 25mpg. Now I have started a new job and the car is need to be a daily driver…. yeah. has got me to work everyday and back but had blown a head gasket and a started in the process. maybe a daily isn’t such a bad idea.
All in, I haven’t had the car dyno’d but we think its in the region of 130hp which is over double from the factory and is enough to get the wider aftermarket wheel spinning. I do have one test for it still to do and thats take it back down the 1/4 mile at santa pod. I did it a couple years ago with a friend with the old engine and it ran a depressing 21/22 second time. Hopefully I’m looking at a 16/17 which I know isn’t the fasted in the world but should be achievable. I have added a couple pictures of the new engine from start to finish
Next was the Exhaust and to start me and my dad made up a cat-back exhaust using a back box from an Audi TT. Looks the beans with a chrome back box and twin pipes out of the back. While we were at the back of the car, my dad came up the an idea to paint the back panel satin black like a cortina, and I’m glad he mentioned it as it looks really good. After a few weeks we decided it was just too loud so we fitted a MK3 cortina silencer and its still loud but not unbearable.
The next job was to lower the car. The shock absorbers needed changing so I bought a full set of shock absorbers and Polyurethane bushes all round. Instead of going on holiday, I booked a week off work and set on with changing the shocks and bushes all round, at the same time, taking two coils out of the springs. If your thinking about installing polyurethane bushes id recumbent plenty of time, WD40, patients and a dad who’s willing the help out. After many swear words it was completely worth it, the handling now feels like a normal car, no more lada wobble. And with the lowered stance it looked perfect for what I wanted.
Recently I bought a performance four branch exhaust manifold and down pipe. After inquiring if it would fit a right handed model I was confident it would be a weekend job….. Oh how I was wrong. The steering box, the clutch master cylinder and the new down pipe would not fit. So With the inlet off we had the choice to modify it to fit. So we did. I bought the push bike out for work and we spent a week after work cutting, grinding and welding the manifold to fit. Painted it white to look like 70’s Ferrari’s f1 cars, heat wrapped the starter motor, put the inlet back together and now its working.
Car update 4/12/17. Acquired a lada nova 1.6 engine. needed a full rebuild as it was in someones driveway and only the front of the car was left. Hard to find however as I knew of a bore and stroker kit available in the Ukraine to makes it an 1800. in addition to this kit, me and my dad spent a few months building it up with a high lift cam, port and polished head, balanced internals and a lightened flywheel. this with the weber 32/36 carb that came with the car it made a huge difference. It made for a great experience and on its first long trip to silverstone I had my grandad in the car who egged me on and in he’s words “with power to spare”. Fitting as we used a lot of his tools to build it. This turned out to also sadly be his last trip to a race track as he passed a couple months later.
A few months later i happened to come across what could be the holy grail for lada engines. A inlet manifold for a right hand drive lada that fits twin 40 carburettors. This came with twin dellortos and with some fiddling and time we amazed to set them up. They could do with setting up professionally but they aren’t far off and a couple months after me and my girlfriend went on a 1000 mile road tip round cornwall, car didn’t miss a beat and even managed an average of 25mpg. Now I have started a new job and the car is need to be a daily driver…. yeah. has got me to work everyday and back but had blown a head gasket and a started in the process. maybe a daily isn’t such a bad idea.
All in, I haven’t had the car dyno’d but we think its in the region of 130hp which is over double from the factory and is enough to get the wider aftermarket wheel spinning. I do have one test for it still to do and thats take it back down the 1/4 mile at santa pod. I did it a couple years ago with a friend with the old engine and it ran a depressing 21/22 second time. Hopefully I’m looking at a 16/17 which I know isn’t the fasted in the world but should be achievable. I have added a couple pictures of the new engine from start to finish
