bike carbs

[redsunbeam]

Has anyone tried fitting bike carbs to the 1300 engine?

[rhys]

Try this page, am sure this will help you out lot, seems very straight forward if you can do small fabrication work etc.

http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/carb_conversion.shtml

[JohnD]

GT,
Do you never bother to follow links?
Jeff McNeal's car has fabricated intake manifolds to match the Keihins.

John

PS, Jeff's car is for sale, did you know?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Triumph-Spitfire-Mk3-The-Ultimate-Triumph-Spitfire-Mk3-Show-Car-STUNNING_W0QQitemZ320168480749QQihZ011QQcategoryZ80756QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Nick B.]

Sure - that is a lot of hype. Odd there isn't a word un the suspension apart from "all new suspension components fitted". I guess that it is pretty much standard then.

Regards
Nick

[JonB67]

I think the guy has a different agenda from you, gt!

Beautiful car, with attention to detail that just works.  Given that he's only put 2k on it and the car is now for sale, you have to wonder if the journey was the destination? (Even if only in retrospect)

Jon

[GT6Steve]

Someones gonna get one Hell of a car for that money!  Not me though, I'd be afraid to drive it. :-/

[rhys]

it a lovely car and would love to buy one for my second project in a few years time, love the colour absolutley gorgeous. He should be really proud of what a fantastic job he has managed

[Jarv_77]

I've only just joined here but have been a spitfire owner/running restorer for 7 years.  I have followed the building of this car on the TotallyTriumph.net forums over the past few years.  A lot of time and attention to detail went into the restoration, but I think the aim eventually wasn't to create a fire-breathing, tarmac-eating, road-warrior but to explore all the skills he could learn as a restorer and to build a pristine, better-than-new, car that will show what a spitfire could have been if not built when it was.  I think the satisfaction was in the journey, as was said above.  It must be stomach-turning to drive it wth the fear that something might get scratched and dirty after all that work.  Seems to be a catch 22, it deserves to be driven but with that quality of finish I fear it will probably end up as a showpiece in a garage.

I'm not a fan of the wheels and tyres and the way it sits on its suspension but it definitely has a great look and attention to detail.  The original poster was asking about bike carbs, I had thought (assumed?) that there were advantages of this 4carb set up over twin SU's but someone above reckons the power output would be the same?  It must be the case that however amazing your carbs are - if you haven't got an engine that can cope with the extra input of fuel/air mixture or deliver any better output then it's not going to work.  I know Jeff has done some upgrades to the engine of Mrs jones, I wonder what the balance of power/torque output would be with twin-su's instead of the Keihns?


Cheers for reading

David

[Nick B.]

Jarv_77 wrote:

- if you haven't got an engine that can cope with the extra input of fuel/air mixture or deliver any better output then it's not going to work

And equally - if you have not got the suspension to deal with an uprated engine, that is not going to work either.

I think this car is a nice showpiece, but to make it roadworthy, you have really got to pour a lot of money into it. Unless it is just to be driven leisurely. But then why bother with bike carbs and stage 2 engine if that is how you want to drive?

I have also followed the restoration of this car. I seem to remember that he bought the entire chassisframe with suspension etc on ebay or similar. From this follows that is has not been done to same high standards as the rest of the car. At some point he nearly lost his rear wheel due to the fact that whoever had sold him the chassis frame had forgot to put the clip in the diff that was supposed to hold the diff output shaft. There was also an incident where he discovered a missing pin for the casstle headed nut in the front hub.

With that standard of resto I would think twice before driving such a nice car. God knows what kind of nick the front trunnions are in?

So all in all - it is a bloody nice car, but please free me from the hype that it is the most restored car etc etc. I see lots of restorations in this forum which are exactly to the same standard and above - just more focused on driving instead of shining.

Rant over

Regards
Nick

[Nick B.]

Oh, and Jarv_77. Welcome to the forum - rant was not aimed at you.

Cheers
Nick

[redsunbeam]

Does it make any difference fitting twin su's instead of the single cd carb then?

[Clive]

not a lot. John tomason did some proper research years ago, same car, swapped twin su of single. Properly tuned, rolling road etc. A 5% power increase with twin su, not as much as expected, andnot a significant change in economy either.
Twins will give more power though. In fact using the later dolly 1300 single carb and inlet (better design) or the dolly manifold with single HS6 carb is possible best?

[redsunbeam]

Anyone got a pair and manifold they dont want??