Blasphemy or ...?

I was at Rob’s workshop yesterday to do some measurements in the engine bay of one of my TR7 body shells standing there. The fact is, he has a rather interesting modern engine lying around, a 2.3 litre Ford Duratec.

Even better, this type of engine seems to be rather good, can be tuned easily, parts availability is good, and it’s easy to put some rather decent (rear wheel drive) gearboxes behind it. And last but certainly not least, they seem to be rather bomb proof on their standard internals (250 BHP easily available and a safe rev range to 7500 rpm). Also being all alloy it’s much lighter than the original Triumph “slant four”. So more than enough reasons to try and fit it in a TR7. Especially as parts supplies for the Sprint engine have been rather difficult so now and then.

First measurements showed that this engine was quite a bit higher than the Triumph “slant four” so I was a bit sceptical of it fitting under the bonnet. But it turned out to be no problem as it can be placed further back. This, combined with its lower weight, should be rather good for weight distribution. But probably the biggest problem is that there is so much room around the engine that making some decent front engine supports will be quite a challenge.

On the other hand, last week during the midway halt from the Nacht van het Oosten at the premises of BCCP I found out that all of the difficult Sprint parts could be delivered or re-manufactured for reasonable prices .... dilemma !!!

But I won’t bother with the engine choice to much for the moment, as I 'm not going to start on ‘t Kreng ... yet. Maybe a nice DHC with a tuned Sprint engine under the bonnet ...

So after some coffee with the traditional vlaai;

It was time to turn the attention to Rob’s Mk2 Escort;