The story of my GT6 mk 111

Bought back in 1985 and was my first car - used on the road daily until 1988.

Living 12 miles from Goodwood motor circuit in West Sussex meant most Saturdays watching test days and sprints – you can see where this is going already!!

So how did it all start, my first modifications were a pair of 1’ ¾ SU’s a Kent TH3 camshaft, set of Triumph Tune 480 springs and some spaxs – well you had to start somewhere – in due course the springs went soft the camshaft disintegrated and I threw the SU’s in the bin!!

Humm back to the drawing board – all the 6 cylinder sprint/race guys pounding the circuits in 1988 were running Lucas fuel injection both on 2.0 & 2.5 cranks and there were a few that certainly caught your attention - a white Vitesse Coupe, brown Vitesse saloon a mid engine’d GT6 and a black mk1 saloon plus a few others - so why not – spares were plentiful and most scrap yards were full of 2000 Saloons and 2.5PI’s so core was no problem – so found myself and ex-police 2.5PI saloon – basically this was TR5 spec engine with a cross drilled crank and a TR gearbox which I dropped straight into my GT6 with a few minor mods and changed the PI system to TR5.

Entered some test days and had some fun – next was a rotoflex backend, new head, 6:3:1 exhaust manifold and a tweaked camshaft with a session on the rolling road - Nice 185 bhp.

My next problem was stopping it - got some bigger brakes and started to put some good times down around Goodwood. In 1988 the price of sprints went up overnight from £18 to the best part of £40 so decided to register with the Triumph Sports Six Club race championship and go racing. The rest is history - ended up with a 210bhp 2.3cc fuel injected lump and some quick times - still couldn’t get it to handle as well as a Vitesse as the GT is a front end heavy boat anchor.

So 13 years down the line having smashed it up at Pembery in 1994 and the remains having sat in my garage ever since I thought it was time to up date the power unit to something a bit more respectable and reliable? A reduction in weight wouldn't go a miss as well - lets face it most three wheeled Tesco's shopping trolleys have a 0-60 of less than 10 seconds and handle better than a GT6. Looked @ Ford & Vauxhall - naah - 6 cylinder BMW too big and heavy - Supra too big and heavy, but didn’t want to put a 4 cylinder in my GT - Another factor which most people overlook is lbs ft torque - most modern diesel's have a torque curve to die for - so even looked at diesel's - have you ever tried to keep up with a new VW Golf TDI going up hill??

Next bought a Volvo T5 as a tow car - what a piece of machinery with 225 ponies that doesn't overheat in traffic and throw its guts up every time you turn the key. So after months of measuring and wondering if the T5 unit would fit under the bonnet of the GT6 - the deed has been done - main problem is that the GT6 engine has a stepped sump which fits up and over the front cross member on the chassis. Ok the Volvo the unit is within 1/2' of the dims of the GT6 apart from the step in the sump - so moving the mountin being the easiest solution was to remove the cross member and relocate about 4 inches further forward - and with a few bulkhead mods a snugg fit was achieved. Fitting the gearbox also required some carefull modification to the chassis ensuring not to weaken it.