THE STORY SO FAR   

"I bought the Manta back in November 1990. It was a 1900 SR Coupe; the car had just been sprayed in metallic blue. I had an idea what I wanted the car to look like so I contacted Fast Car magazine to see what body kits were available to transform the Manta into the sketch of my ideal vehicle that I had drawn. They came up with the EVOLUTION  WIDE KIT from Germany. It was very near to what I had pictured the car to look like with only minor modification. The kit was fairly difficult to fit in places so I decided to glue the kit on and make up some panels. I also modified the kit reshaping the rear bumper and rear spoiler, foam filling it for strength. The kit looked great (more like a hovercraft) I needed some very wide rubber to fill the archers, after looking around I came to the decision that compromotive split rims CX style was the best choice, complimented with Yokohama rubber; pricey but a good all round tyre, with a lick of Ferrari formula one red paint and Astra GTE bonnet vents the car looked pretty much finished.

                                                                              

A few months of cruising and the engine drops a valve (typical 4 pot) so I fixed it but weeks later you guessed it, it drops another. So enough was enough - the car looked great but just did not have the get up and go. So out came the engine leaving me with a small problem - NO ENGINE. What could I put back in it? After some consideration I considered the Monza 3.0 litre and the Rover 3.5 V8 but after looking around and deciding to go V8 If I am going V8 I might as well go V8 (Chevrolet V8). So in went a 350 small block 5.7 litre V8 with a little help and a nudge and a push here and there. For the gearbox I turned to a 350 turbo with a Hurst ratchet shifter. The car looked finished now with twin straight through exhausts and an addition of a polished aluminium street scoop out of the bonnet. The car was still using standard brakes but handled and braked extremely well. Acceleration was wicked compared to the four pot.

 
The car was back on the road in days and all looked well. NO SUCH LUCK!! The V8 v’d off and cracked the block at 11pm stuck in Maidstone, but good old Marshall Dixons gasoline ally gave me an engine on credit [ we will miss old tony as he passed away in 2002] so a friend and I picked it up at 1am in his van and went back to his garage in Maidstone. Well early hours of Saturday morning we set about swapping engines by 6pm Sunday night I had a red  and chromed show winning chevy engine in and running, what a result. Well 2 months later the gearbox gives up, 

                              on an   AA truck home just for a change I had had enough so I planned my attack.

Nearly 10 years later and the car is practically finished. The result of my attack on the Manta is as follows: -
· A complete new chassis front to rear using 4’2" steel.
· Chevy 10-bolt posse axle 4 bar link kit. Coil over spaxs adjustable suspension.
· 8-point roll cage all the inner wings removed. The side window pillars removed and black Perspex window custom made for the Manta by fibre sports of Basildon, making the Manta a pillarless coupe.
· A futuristic dashboard, which totally transformed the interior, slight modification to the rear archers and twin servos for braking.
· Engine which is a rebuilt fully race spec racing 327 V8, shifter improver kit for the gearbox with a lightened torque converter and nitrous.
· The engine is ready built to take a B&M blower, which I will fit when funds allow.

a case of too many other projects on the go same old thing.

Well to update its now 2003 and the car is just having a repaint due to a misfortunate incident in a work shop while getting sump and gearbox sorted [ a few scratches]ready for this years shows. It will be the first time the car has been on the road for 10 yrs as been trailering it to shows over the past 2 years. May still trailer it to sum as I would like to get the old project van out to some shows as well and it has a tow bar result!!!

still got some minor bits to finish but there never totally finished as there is always something new or another idea to change.

the interior is 90% done now with just sounds to fit in. Also having small problem with the cooling system

so will be keeping an eye on that this year with addition of new kenlow fans and transcooler.

looking at this airbag suspension kit that's out as due to speed humps going in everywhere it may be a good idea to fir them

also xmas brought a nice new steering wheel to finish of the interior .

would like to get the engine bay tided up with polished alloy sheeting but may have to wait till I have sorted out all the tweaking that will be done over the next few months.

. It has been a long hard struggle but I am getting there.

Now planning some more changes to the manta over the next couple of years she has been running well and best time over the 1/4 mile 11.24

If  you are building a project car and think you will never finish it hopefully this will keep you going because there was times over the last 12 yrs that I could of just stopped but if ya keep at it you will have that project done. this is living proof of it.
Happy mantering and catch you at a show this year.