It’s been far, far too long since my last blog post. I’ve been decently overwhelmed with school, work, the Triumph itself, and sheer laziness over the last long while. However, there has been many exciting things that have happened since my last post. Most of the front end has been rebuilt, and cleaned up with all new components and paint. It looks awesome. I’m quite happy with the way it has turned out, however there is still quite a lot of work to do. This includes brake caliper rebuilds, new lines, have an honest look at the steering rack and continuing to the rear end from there.

Since my last blog post, I have finished my Engineering program at Conestoga, and have been hired as an Engineering Technician at Strite Industries here in Cambridge. This has steered me into a slightly different direction with the car. Originally my intention was to restore the car to completely stock form; this included the engine, transmission, drive-line, interior, exterior and suspension. Having a steady job and a little bit of money coming in to focus on the car, I have been leaning towards making the car a bit more of a sleeper. That is, leave the car cosmetically original and upgrade the underpinnings with some go-fast bits.

I made the mistake of buying a Triumph World magazine and found all of the amazing things that are available for the car. Since the sale of my motor and transmission, I have been looking for an intake manifold for the proper engine to be fitted to the car, as well as an overdrive transmission. This would require buying a proper drive shaft for the car as the one I have is for an MK-III, and rebuilding the twin SU’s the car has come equipped with.

After reading the magazine and considering my options and what I would like to get out of the vehicle, I have compiled a small list of tasteful parts that will not only keep true to the era and authenticity of the car, but also give me a significant performance increase over stock. This list includes; GAZ fully adjustable dampers, performance intake manifold (3 individual casts), triple Weber carbs, performance stainless exhaust, Ford 5-Speed converted transmission and drive shaft, Quaife ATB limited slip differential, digital tune-able distributor,  performance camshaft, unleaded fuel head conversion and a mildly built motor, slight compression increase, tri-metal bearings and such. I figure with these upgrades and some proper tuning, I will hope to get around ~150 horse power at the rear wheels which will already be a handful for such a light car. As I already have a performance radiator, I will be purchasing a matching electric fan to keep the rad nice and cool.

The most exciting news about the car is that I have finally moved it to a space where I can actually work on it efficiently, and where I am no longer tripping over my own feet to work on it. My friend Joe and his brother recently purchased a shop space and I have been renting it off of him since. It’s a beautiful space that houses all three of our cars, his being a very very seriously built race car. His work is incredible.

I have also purchased a new car myself to replace the Lancer that I have been driving for years now. As I tried to turn my Lancer into a Lancer Evolution, I decided to give up on that and just purchase the real thing. I will be reverting the Lancer back to stock and selling it before continuing on the GT6, however I plan on doing that sooner rather than later and putting the money I obtain from the sale into the Triumph. It’s a busy but exciting time right now. More to come.

– Sean