Q cars

What utterly bog-standard looking motor would you most like to soup up to an evil extent, and why?

Mine would be (sorry 'bout this) Mk 1 Orion, because I had a 1.6i new as my first ever car. I'd want the RS Turbo engine in it with suspension and brake mods to match but with the exterior left completely standard.

Even now I cannot explain why. Nostalgia tempered with recognition that they weren't fast enough, I guess.

I believe they are rather popular with chavs these days.

What else?

Reply to
John Redman
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In the late 60s I had a 1959 Hillman Husky into which I and a bunch of friendly mechanics at the old BR subsidiary, Freightliner, had transplanted a Jaguar 3.8 straight six and appropriate driveline. Lots and lost of fabrication and welding. They had nothing better to do on the quiet night shifts. We had a lot of fun doing it. I wrecked it and nearly myself, too, six months later. I learned valuable lessons about the need to revise and upgrade suspension components when you do something like this. I still bear the scars, etc., etc.

Reply to
Dan Drake

"Dan Drake" wrote

Christ Almighty. How much of the power made it to the road, do you reckon, given that the Husky was presumably on skinny crossplies?

I knew a bloke who knew a bloke who'd allegedly put a Jag V12 into a Ford Anglia. It was only possible because he deleted the front seats to do it and drove it sitting on the back bench.

Reply to
John Redman

In news:cs6tui$j81$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk, John Redman decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

I've seen this done. Also seen Fiesta RS Turbo running gear in a Fiesta 1.4 Ghia. That was worrying to drive.

I helped build a V8 Rover powered Escort XR3i about 10 years ago. You could buy a kit which was basically the rwd floorpan. Went well. Cracked plenty of windscreens though. I think we should have braced it a bit better.

Best Q cars I've seen;

Mk1 Granada with 400 BHP Cosworth running gear Mercedes W123 230 TE with a 5.6 Merc V8 in I had a Mk2 Escort van with full RS2000 running gear Volvo 760 Estate with a small block Chevy V8.

Best standard Q car, for me, is the Mercedes 500E.

Reply to
Pete M

"John Redman" wrote in message news:cs6tui$j81$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

Ones I have owned and built: Jaguar 3.4 powered Zephyr mark3

V6 cortina mk3 (several)

Lotus escort van (several)

Lotus escort estate (several)

Lotus viva HA

V8 CF

2 litre pinto chevette

2 litre pinto escort mk1

All were mainly built because the bits were there

Reply to
mrcheerful

Pete M was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Oh yes. *Very* hard to spot that one as almost all the ones I'm aware of are debadged.

Reply to
Timo Geusch

I have seen an Austin A35 with a bonnet scoop (a bit like the A55 shape) through which you could see a V engine (though I couldn't work out which one. Cast iron though, so not a Rover one). Saw (and heard) it go a while later - on a damp road the car finally lost wheelspin as it changed up from

3rd to 4th.

I have seen a similar bonnet scoop revealing a V engine in an Anglia 105E. Never saw it go though.

Heard of (but never saw) a 1930s Hillman with full Cosworth/BRM power train, being used in late 1960s.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Warren

Boggle!

Go on, do tell.

Reply to
Willy Eckerslyke

Back in the late 70s I was loaned an Austin A30 which was in the workshop to go to town and gets some things. It looked 100% bog standard but frightened the hell out of me when I accelerated hard to start off for the first time and spun the rear wheels!!! It went like hell and could top a hunded with a supercharged Healey Sprite engine in it!

Cornering was slightly interesting as it still has standard tyres - though stiffened race suspension was there.

It turned out it belonged to the local Vicar!!!

You needed to have your prayers heard to drive it and survive - I drove it a number of times after that and got quite good at the praying thing !!!

Clive

==========================================

Reply to
tby

I'd upgraded to (skinny) Michelin X radials, but it didn't make a great deal of difference.

Reply to
Dan Drake

Back in the late 70s I was loaned an Austin A30 which was in the workshop to go to town and gets some things. It looked 100% bog standard but frightened the hell out of me when I accelerated hard to start off for the first time and spun the rear wheels!!! It went like hell and could top a hunded with a supercharged Healey Sprite engine in it!

Cornering was slightly interesting as it still has standard tyres - though stiffened race suspension was there.

It turned out it belonged to the local Vicar!!!

You needed to have your prayers heard to drive it and survive - I drove it a number of times after that and got quite good at the praying thing !!!

Clive

Reply to
tby

Easy fit, escort lotus twin cam 1600 with the escort ordinary little box. Remote reservoir brake master cylinder and remote servo. Everything else was straightforward except for the extra weight on the front leaf spring to which I added a leaf to a van spring, bastard to refit though ! Single piece prop and the viva axle. Discs on the front and adjustable shocks all round. It would have been dangerous to be too silly pulling away as the axle would break, but the rolling acceleration (viva ha only weighs about

700kg as standard) was quite exceptional at the time I was using it (early 80s) Nothing ever stayed with it up to a hundred which was when the revs ran out. Absolutely gorgeous sound effects from the un air filtered webers too. When I get time perhaps I will put it back on the road (yes I still have it, but in bits, those lotus engines were good, but breakable)

Best fun I ever had was with the mk3 v6 cortina with a welded diff 1.3 axle, it was dukes of hazard all over the place. (I've still got that too, but with a 2 litre diff now, but sadly off the road, initially due to a blow up, but now just not enough time to rebuild it)

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

How about a Q-van?

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Reply to
fishman

Biggest grin of the day. Thanks!

Reply to
Willy Eckerslyke

I've always wanted to drop a Rover V8 into the back of a Skoda Estelle...

The Standard 8 in my garden is in for "the treatment" in the next couple of years, but I haven't fully decided what to put in it yet.

A friend of mine used to have a 50's Ford Pop which had been fitted with independent suspension and a huge engine, can't recall what, but the car looked standard outside. He used to delight in tootling along on the motorway waiting for a Beemer to come flying along, and then floor it and blow the Beemer away!

Reply to
Chris Bolus

So you can get away with that (would - in la la land anyhow - like to do something similar to the old (1986) 240 Estate ).

Looks like there is no problem with space under the bonnet.

How much of the rest of the running gear requires beefing up ?

The Aisin-Warner autobo would probably have to go - then again a donor US V8 or even a Rover 3.5 would probably have one in the near vicinity (like autos - lazy driver - sorry) :o)

Guess the back axle is fairly robust, and, post a full refurb anyhow, the braking up to the job - given the loading capabilities of the base vehicle.

Reply to
Mark W

I've wanted to do it to a 240 as well, although I'd prefer the Rover V8.

Try Googling around, there's something here

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David

Reply to
David Balfour

Daimler 2.5 ? A popular period choice for such projects - it's small enough to fit into all sorts of bodyshells. I had one in a Moggy Minor.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "mrcheerful ." saying something like:

Death wish?

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

"John Redman" wrote in message news:cs6tui$j81$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

OOH, I remembered some of the others:

Toyota twin cam in a Talbot horizon,

Loads of v6s in transits,

a Granada based transit that was only a few inches off the floor

1600 crossflow in Toyota starlet

pinto in a corolla

mrcheerful

Reply to
mrcheerful

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