Her nick name is Biscuits McVitties , after my favorite cookies, however, I am changing it to LuLu or Penny. The idea of naming her Penny is due to me finding two pennies in the car. The first penny was found in the dash and is a pristine 1967 New Zealand penny, the other was a slighly tarnished New Zealand 1967 two penny that was found in the passenger buddy box.
It has the original 998 that has been bored to 1014cc with a HS4 carb, 266 cam, flat top pistons and Cooper 12G295 head. Wheels have been powder coated in a sun gold color to emulate 60's racers.
The suspension was hydrolastic, but was failing so I changed over to coil springs with some KYB shocks, adjustable lower arms and adjustable tie rods with poly bushes all around. Brakes are alloy spaced drums in the rear with four pot calipers up front and braided steel hoses all around.
The header is a Maniflow Cooper freeflow with JetHot ceramic coating on it. Too bad the header is buried in the back of the engine, it looks tasty!
Here is the almost complete motor. Picked it up from the engine builder on the 12th of April 2010. Final specification is a MiniSpares Evo 266 cam, 1014cc capacity with 9:1 compression ratio. 12G295 head with double springs and new valves. Lightened flywheel with new clutch, double roller timing chain , central oil pickup. It had a 123 distributor , but changed it out for a Pertronix unit (looks more period correct). Added at a super two core radiator and new plastic 11 blade fan to keep it running nicely for many years to come.
Here is a shot of the fresh engine in place and the car on her fresh wheels.
I changed the rear license plate lights from the bumper to the boot lid. The two little lights were ineffectual at illuminating the plate and worked better at shining light into the boot. I added a Mini style light to just above the plate.
Here is the before shot
And the after shot:
I also added some tasty new four pot alloy brakes and grooved discs. A large improvement over the twin leading shoe drums.
Here are the drums before, sufficient for a 1000cc car
Then the four pot alloy MiniSpares calipers with "S" CV joints and grooved discs
Here is a shot of my Riley out on a canyon run to bed in the brakes
I had a 13 inch Moto-Lita that was very functional and looked fantastic, but found a restored Les Leston. It is a 15 inch wheel and feels great. It is considerably lighter than the Moto-Lita, not sure by how much since I didn't weigh them out the difference in weight is discernible.
And here is how she looks as of February 12. Was able to get some work done on the body and now she is a solid color again after many years of being a patchwork of colors. Now that I have a nice primer coat on I can see places that need attention.
I was also able to get the OK from the department of motor vehicles to put my black and gold plates on the car! The black and gold plates were issued to cars in California from 1963 till 1972, much like black and silver plates in the UK. They look great and really give the car the vintage look she needs.
The next thing to upgrade is the interior, but that will be done in a few weeks and will add the pictures when it is done. I will also need to get my mind made up on what color to paint her. One idea is a grey much like what she is painted now and a black roof and flairs.
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