MGB GT V8 Motorsport Build

Hello, I thought that I might share some of my efforts to make a club level competition car out of a collection of MGB parts.

I bought an unfinished MGB GT V8 replica project in August 2009 and I've been slowly working on it. I've installed a Safety Devices FIA cage and added 8 extra brackets to the A and B pillars. I've also done a bit of seam welding to the heelboard and floor.

I've got a bit carried away with the rear suspension and I've made a four link and coil spring set up. You can just see in the photo that the lower links at angled inwards towards the diff housing - the Satchell arrangement - and the upper links go backwards making a Watts linkage.

It seems complicated but I wanted to use the existing leaf spring mounts and I wanted a lower roll centre than you can achieve with a Panhard rod. The front lower brackets have two bolt location that will give two roll centre heights. Whether the roll centre is too low will be apparent once we get up and running.

The engine is a 3.5 Rover with Real Steel heads and Stage 2 cam, Rhodes lifters, Holley 390 on an Offenhauser 360 manifold. Allegedly 220 bhp, we'll see. Gearbox is an LT77, but I do have an R380 from my RV8 project.

Lots still to do: there's a floor mounted bias pedal box to install; front suspension to do something with - raise the roll centre perhaps; rear discs to think about - as well as all the usual build and paint stuff.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Done a bit of cleaning up of the axle brackets tonight. The clearance for some of the spherical bearings was a bit tight. One of the brackets has to double up as the bump stop so I've made a top piece which I'll TIG on later in the week.

Photo shows the strengthening plates for the main roll hoop and the back stays. Interestingly the FIA homologated cage has smaller mounting plates than would normally be allowed under UK MSA regulations - or at least that's how I've interpreted it. So I've extended the main hoop strengthening plate downward into the heel board by TIG welding in a 3mm thick extension piece.

No more work on the MG today, but I've been to pick up a concentric clutch slave cylinder to see if I can adapt it to the LT77 gearbox.

Thought I'd add a photo of the bracket that I made to take the trailing arm from the front leaf spring mount.

Been down to see Pete Gamble at Hi-Gear Engineering for a chat over lunch about his GT V8 build and his supercharged MGA. Collected my quad downdraft Dell'Ortos from Steve Hall at TR Enterprises who was interested in buying them for a customer, but the customer changed plans. So, maybe they'll go on my GT instead of the Holley 390.....

I've installed a floor mounted bias pedal box and a clutch foot rest. The pedal box is bolted to an aluminium plate with two set of holes to allow me to move the pedals back and forth to adjust the driving position if I need to. The foot rest I made from some steel sheet with holes that I flared with a steel ball, hammer and a piece of tube.

I've finished the modifications on the battery box by trimming the lower edge to accommodate the Satchell link trailing arm. I've decided to put the Facet red top fuel pump and Mallory billet filter inside the old battery compartment, so I've boxed it all in to keep the weather out. I've also rolled the rear arches and stretched them about half an inch with a hydraulic ram. I'm intending to put 7x15 wheels in there without resorting to Sebring arches, but we'll have to see if it's feasible!