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BRM SKI's K Series Project
This story caught my eye on one of the MG forums and the owner kindly allowed me to reproduce this, many thanks. Although the interest is the K Series, I am going to relate some of the other bits being done, too.
July 2010: About 5 years
ago the old man and I bought an MGB as a restoration project. It was a
rubber bumper convertible modified for a Rover V8 engine, but, it was a
non-runner. After taking it apart and completely stripping it down the
bodywork was found to be 'ropey' to say the least. Work started
rebuilding her, but with the BRM track project it got sidelined and has
sat in the unit for a few years untouched and unloved.
Now that the BRM is basically finished we decided to resurrect the
project but not as a restoration. As we have enjoyed the track days so
much we have decided to make it into a track car primarily because it'll
be a great fun rwd car.
The big decision was whether to keep it as a V8. A few factors affected
our choice in this.....firstly we had a 3.9l EFI, but tuning it would
cost a pretty penny, secondly we watched the MG racing at Brands and an
Elise 190 K-series engined MGB destroyed a 3.9 V8 engined MGB, and
lastly we had most of the parts already for a monster K!
So here it is, the first sneak preview photo of our MGBK. It may take a
while to finish, but as i'll keep you all updated
So that's where it all started. All of the rotten and damaged bits have either been replaced or welded up. New doors on here, she did have new front and rear wings as well, but the recent decision to go for the Sebring kit means these have to come off now.
August 2010: Lots of bits being bought as well and we had the new HG, bolts, oil ladder delivered! It's the brand new Chinese jobby with the uprated bolts and gasket and I must say the gasket looks very impressive. It's almost thick enough to work as a de-comp plate, something like 7 layers!!
September 2010: One small niggle
with the front suspension was that the cross member is held in place by
4 bolts with rubber 'lipped' bushes that hold the bolts in place. This
seemd crazy, as if the rubber deteriorates, the bolts will just 'flop'
about in the holes. Cue some aluminium bushes being made to replace
these and 'firm-up' the front end a bit. Might have some issues with
shock transference but should be ok and should definitely tighten the
steering a wee bit.
So today after Dad made up some spacers we set to getting the suspension
all on.
As you can see, no expense spared on the Chassis:
Along with a Quaife differential:
October 2010: Mostly activity on fitting a roll cage and glass-fibre hard-top.
November 2010: Mock up of engine and gearbox and trial fitted in the car.
March 2011: Some serious modification of the front cross member was required, but this'll be reinforced internally and rebuilt to fit.
So Saturday was a big day for us as we finally
made up the engine mounts. It's a big job getting an engine to sit level
with mounts that you're making yourself but I reckon we've done a grand
job. So here are a lot of photo's of what was a big achievement for
us...
The basic shape was made up by creating a plate to attach to the engine
(made using a dummy engine block) and a plate to attach to the mounting
rubber. We then cut card templates the fashion the 'joining' triangles
nd welded it all together, voila...
April 2011: Old oil filter housing, useless as it doesn't fit...So we made our own housing which will feed to a remote filter...
Simliarly, old coolant elbow doesn't fit...So we made our own of that as well...
May 2011: Welded cross member...
Lots of room around the custom oil take-off...
July 2011: Oil filter remotely mounted on the inner wing...
Small rad fan and bracket borrowed from a scrapped Renault Espace, almost a perfect fit...
September 2011:So here is how she stands at the moment....we've managed to get a suitable ride height at the front now by chopping down the original springs, now we know what size/spec to have some custom fronts made up to. Had the custom oil catch and expansion tanks delivered and mocked in place and fuel filter placement sorted. Need to whip the block out to start building the engine properly and a spare K block will go back in place next weekend so we can carry on mocking up the routing of the piping we need. The big change is on the rear where we've sculpted some arch flares.
October 2011: Custom made fuel tank to fit in the boot
November 2011: Engine dry built, clearances all checked, etc and pretty much ready to be disassembled now before being built properly. Check out the sexy exhuast manifold from Ollie Neaves old race B...
We did find that with the engine in the position we have it the manifold fouls on one of the chassis rails, so some remedial re-welding was required...
December 2011: That's not a clutch.........This is a clutch!!
Well this is it, bodywork is all done! All rubbed down and ready for paint, hopefully it'll actually go in this week
K Series Power