Spitfire GTS

Rat_ranger

Coast to Coast
So this spitfire started out stock, pickes it up cheap because it sat for over 20 years. Drove it a few months stock, then ripped the drivetrain out for an upgrade. Swapped in a toyota 4age with a t50 from an ae86 corolla. After a little while I pulled off the stock intake and threw a set of ITBs on it with a megasquirt 2 ecu and 2jz waste spark coils. It is still like this getting 30mpg, I have plans to add a ms2x set up and go full sequential with lq9 coils on the plugs. And if I quit being lazy I made an adapter to put an AZ6 6speed manual behind the 4age.
 

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Probably won't be many changes for a while. I've got over 10k miles on the swap, probably 7k of that with the megasquirt. I have the parts to build a pretty hot engine for it, 12-1 compression, 288 cams, forged pistons and rods, upgrade oil pump, valve springs. I've had the parts about a year, but either life or other projects have distracted me.

Plus I have an earlier round tail body and frame that I want to drop the hot motor in, and actually make look good.

It is a fun little car to drive, and with the toyota engine it starts every time, and even keeps up with traffic.
 
On this one. I have a miata diff and uprights for the 67. I need to finish my bike and ATV before I can fit it in the garage to get busy.
 
They are within 20lbs or so once you add the transmission in. But instead of being a race tuned motor to get 100whp, it is stock and has EFI, and actually starts when you turn the key.
 
GT6 was a good looking car. There have to be better motors for that too.

Toyota upgrade has to be a step forwards though on this one.
 
Ah a spit6, a car triumph should have made. I chose to go with the toyota engine mostly because I have a dislike of carbs. Especially carbs like the SU's. I shouldn't need to add oil to carbs, rebalance every oil change, and sometimes stop and get out to manually turn the choke off. EFI, is surprisingly simple once you understand it. The megasquirt I'm running was a kit, so I soldered it all together myself and learned to tune it myself. Next up my bike will get a microsquirt.
 
teazer said:
GT6 was a good looking car. There have to be better motors for that too.

Toyota upgrade has to be a step forwards though on this one.

I agree, I especially like the later ones. Unfortunately the engine and running gear were not up to snuff.
 
teazer said:
GT6 was a good looking car. There have to be better motors for that too.

Toyota upgrade has to be a step forwards though on this one.

I think the 2.5 6 pot from the TR6 and the big saloons wasnt too difficult a swap. 150ish brake, pretty good for nearly 50 years ago, so would be lovely in the little GT6. Avoid the Pi injected model, which used to catch fire with alarming regularity.

Chatting to my mate Kenny today, his 'Spitfire' is actually a Spitfire body on a GT6 chassis, not a GT6 engine swap into a Spit as I'd thought.
 
Fairly normal to do it that way. The gt6 had better front brakes, and the later ones had the rotoflex rear suspension. The 2.5 drops right in to a gt6 set up. I think the pi had better flowing head.
 
Seeing this thread has me looking on CL for spitfires. They are surprisingly affordable. I've also been doing research about engine swaps into the spitfire. I've had an itch to build a car, and seeing as I can no where near afford an original AC, nor even a Sunbeam, a Spitfire with a nasty engine swap may be the thing to do.
 
Just make sure it isn't rusty. Rust can cost thousands to fix. Plus plan on swapping the rear diff, I'm pushing the limits of what it'll take with about 100rwhp. I know the rover/buick v8 is a popular swap, more people are doing miata swaps now, 4age and t50s are getting harder to find. Height is a definite limiting factor, the 4age clears the hood by maybe an inch.
 
Nice!
My Bro had a '73 Spitfire in High School. Had alot of fun in that car. Always dreamed of building it up with a Buick turbo 6 back then, but had no knowledge/experience to make that happen. These days would be a different story though :p
 
How about a 13B or even a 20B swap? That ever been done? Small packages capable of some pretty good hp and work well with turbos.
 
Yep, a couple years ago someone did that for the grassroots motorsports challenge. I think the main reason you don't see it much is most junkyard rotaries are junk. Great engines, but when they break they get pricey.
 
Well this car sat for about a year. I came home one day and the driver door was open and a hoodie was missing from inside the car, so it got moved to a more secure spot. And a more secure spot made it a hassle to get out when I could just jump in the truck.

So I pulled it out and started cleaning it up and tuning it up to get ready to sell it. First was a new battery and battery cables, the $12 pick n pull battery gave up after only 5 years. The original intake is back on as the ITBs on a basically stock engine look cool, but hurt driveability. And finally for today was an oil change. It'll get another oil change in a week since it sat so long.

Over the next week or 2 I will be cleaning up the wiring some, cleaning the car in general, and retuning it to run speed density unsteady of alphaN. Once it's clean and ready it'll go on craigslist.
 

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