Mk1, manual tunnel, Zetec/other conversion?
Hi all,
I have a mk1 project-car which was sitting around in undercoat for 20yrs, which I've just had blasted and etch-primed, and which has got me all motivated towards thinking about what to do with it.
Originally our plan was all turbo Pinto, we have a 205-block engine (unfortunately it's been sitting in a paddock for 20yrs now) and a non-Cossie injection manifold and a Supra W58 which we intended to use. However the project-car I've been fiddling with since storing the Escort is a '79 Volvo 242GT which has been modified to look like the Group A cars which won the ATCC in '86 ... and as a result, I'm a little over old coarse 4cyl engines that can happily boost all day (and produce buckets of torque) but just don't have any 'zing'.
I miss my 4AGE, I guess, even if in this day & age my mum in her 7yo Mazda3 would slam me in the traffic-light drag.
Now a friend's heavily involved in clubman cars (Birkin if anyone knows it), and they use Ford powertrains, some imported already built-up from the UK. He's definitely mentioned fitting Type 9 gearboxes to n/a Zetecs at the least, although I also wonder if an MZR/Duratec might be another option ... although I'm open to anything (a Ford badge on the rocker-cover is a positive).
I think a revvy n/a engine would be what I want, turbo torque is great but I think the n/a option would suit the car better, at least for my purposes (just a fun car to go for a blatt in, maybe an occasional driver-training-day style track-day).
So ...
(*) any thoughts from those who've done such things?
(*) anyone know if I'm going to be able to fit anything which won't need an auto trans tunnel (or even more mods than that)?
Ta heaps in advance!