1979 Triumph Spitfire Project

I prefer not to post until I have some quantifiable "thing" complete. That's good and bad. It allows the post to document a sub-project in a meaningful way. Unfortunately there are multiple things I've worked on that I haven't written up. I have a disassembled and cleaned Ford T-9 transmission sitting on a table in my basement. "Quasimotor" is a really cool full size engine mock-up I made to test fit the Mazda V6. My son-in-law Ken 3D printed a remote oil filter adapter model that I created in Solid Works. So there is actually a good bit of work that has been done but not documented here because it's "in process".  The plan for custom parts like the remote oil filter adapter, is to cast them in aluminum. Ken became interested in casting aluminum, purchased the equipment to do so, and has cast a few items. Very cool. But parts cast for use on the Spitfire will quite often need precision mating surfaces, meaning they will need to be machined....

My apologies that it's been a while since my last post. There was more time to write these in the winter months. Spring sprung and I became busy with lots of projects and activities. I have actually continued to work on Penny along with everything else, but writing posts has fallen to low priority. I always find it amusing when the subject of finding things to do in retirement comes up. In retirement, I'll finally have time to do perhaps 50% of the things I'm interested in. 😜 I'm going to give up on trying to write about, and post-date work done in the past. From this point forward topical posts will be dated when I publish them. The last post discussed removing the engine and transmission. Since then I've spent time on three general things, although everything currently relates to making sure the Mazda KLG4 V6 engine will fit.   Figuring out how to verify that the basic physical dimensions of the V6 will fit inside the engine compartment with reasonable accuracy. ...

  (Written on 2/19/2022) As I mentioned previously, I love the look of the Spitfire. The handling and braking are on par for a sports car of this class; no reason to try and change anything about them. However, the Spitfire does not provide the performance that I'm looking for. I gave considerable thought to what my objectives for this project are, and came up with this list:     Do not alter the exterior body of the car.     Do not add significant weight, or significantly redistribute weight in a way that would adversely impact handling.     Significantly decrease the 0-60 and 1/4 mile times of the car.     Improve the reliability of the engine, transmission, and drivetrain.     Make the interior comfortable for drives up to two hours in duration.     In all decisions try to minimize costs.     Don't compromise the car's inherent safety. The third and fourth objectives greatly ...