Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: TurboFource on Tuesday,January 12, 2021, 02:09:55 PM
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https://www.v8forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12543
Wonder if he ever finished it and how it looked....
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I know that there is one out there. Look up V8 Europa on YouTube.
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Our own Clifton has a V8 Europa.
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I thought just rebuilding a TCS, (or S1, S2 or TC), was pretty ambitious for your average guy at home - but those pictures just takes it to another level.
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Probably the most famous V8 one (and likely the first) is GKN 47D - Google should take you to everything about it.
http://www.colinchapmanmuseum.co.uk/?page_id=3225
*edited to add the above link, scroll down the page a bit.
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The rear overriders are 60s kiche, horrible things, ruin the good rear lines of the Europa
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Many years ago there was a guy on the Yahoo Group who was contemplating a Rover V8 along the lines of the GKN 47D.
He was looking to bolt Lotus 907 heads to it.
Apparently, the Vauxhall 2 litre engine is essentially half a Rover V8 and as such, shared bore spacing etc. Given the Lotus 907 head was originally developed on a Vauxhall block, it sounded plausible.
Also interesting to note is the Lotus 907 head is symmetrical as pertains to the head bolts. The 907 cam trays are also symmetrical which, if all this is true, would mean one could arrange two 907 heads and four 907 cam trays on a Rover V8 block and have the ports and pulleys in the right places by default.
Of course, there'd be some engineering needed for the cam drives etc. but a lightish 32 valve V8 might be pretty cool.
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I know of several 215/907 conversions that have been started.
Some are much further along than others but I do not know of ANY that have actually run.
One issue is that the engine gets much wider with the TC heads, so what does it still fit into?
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Many years ago there was a guy on the Yahoo Group who was contemplating a Rover V8 along the lines of the GKN 47D.
He was looking to bolt Lotus 907 heads to it.
Apparently, the Vauxhall 2 litre engine is essentially half a Rover V8 and as such, shared bore spacing etc. Given the Lotus 907 head was originally developed on a Vauxhall block, it sounded plausible.
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By that you mean the Rover V8 is Buick is GM, Vauxhall is GM
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I knew GKN47D in the mid 70’s when I worked as a student engineer and working in the R&D department of Vandervell’s. It was then pretty well a race car and had been modified significantly. The engine was fitted with 4 down draft 48 Weber’s race cams and 4.4 litres. It had race tyres on for the road. The guys who looked after it and did some development work were mostly x vanwall mechanics. It used to be MOT then put away. To start it they had to take the engine cover off as it would blow back significantly until it warmed up. A couple of other stories on it. It was said that Colin Chapman would not fit GKN nuts and bolts and these were changed by Vandervells. Also the story of the little fins on the front quarters. They used to test drive it up the short section of the M40 towards Oxford and at 120mph the front would go very light one of the mechanics told me that he was driving it with a passenger moved the wheel and the car carried on straight. A bit hairy. The interior was beautiful never got out in it but sat in it a few times.
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I knew GKN47D in the mid 70’s when I worked as a student engineer and working in the R&D department of Vandervell’s. It was then pretty well a race car and had been modified significantly. The engine was fitted with 4 down draft 48 Weber’s race cams and 4.4 litres. It had race tyres on for the road. The guys who looked after it and did some development work were mostly x vanwall mechanics. It used to be MOT then put away. To start it they had to take the engine cover off as it would blow back significantly until it warmed up. A couple of other stories on it. It was said that Colin Chapman would not fit GKN nuts and bolts and these were changed by Vandervells. Also the story of the little fins on the front quarters. They used to test drive it up the short section of the M40 towards Oxford and at 120mph the front would go very light one of the mechanics told me that he was driving it with a passenger moved the wheel and the car carried on straight. A bit hairy. The interior was beautiful never got out in it but sat in it a few times.
😎 There must have been plenty of interesting stories from those guys?