My wife bought me the 69 spitfire for a wedding present as I bought her a classic mini and I think she was sick of me going on about the 1500 spitfire I had until just before we met.
Anyways I picked it up early summer and it needs the usual spitfire bodywork but when it came to the engine the previous owner had bought it as part of a barn find job lot and could not get it running. As I have spent most of my life around triumphs mainly small chassis models like the GT6 and spitfire I quickly traced the problems down and got it running but a check of the engine number showed it was a 1500 dolomite engine which was not expected. I did plan on building another fast road spit engine but decided instead to set myself the challenge of building a better package for the same or less than a new fast road spitfire mk3 engine and box.
After much research I settled on the Ford Sigma 1600 engine in a variable cam format. The 1600 Sigma engine started life as a brain child of Ford and Yamaha used as a 1700 in the Ford Puma then fiesta on other ford range as the Zetec SE, not to be confused with the Zetec E as it’s a totally different engine and arrangement. The latest update changed some components and added Ti-VCT it was re branded as the Duratec Ti-VCT 1600 once again not the same as the Duratec engine, Ford just like to use tag names like the Zetec and Duratec to the engine era, It is its own engine type known as the Ford Sigma range.
Upsides of the 1600 Sigma engine.
Very very light as its all alloy
Fits in the spitfire (see images for size comparison to original engine)
Cheap for what you get
Standard form 120bhp with ECU and other bolt on bits 155bhp with no internal work. Over 200bhp has been seen on reliable proven engines
Both Caterham and Morgan use this engine in there current cars
Downsides of Sigma 1600 engine.
Different bell housing pattern to all other ford bell housing patterns.
Not much knowledge out there for tuning this engine.
Not many aftermarket parts available.
I could have gone for a bigger engine or one with more power but I don’t want to destroy the characteristics of the spitfire I love. I asked myself what I like the spitfire and it’s the handling and the revvy nature of the spitfire engine. Putting in a dirty great big v8 with loads of power might be great for a quarter mile but I want to build a twisty “A road” car, maybe the occasional club track day so loads of power is not what I want. I also want the car to look pretty stock more of a sleeper but with modern grunt. 750kg 2 seat car does not need super power for a fast road car.
So I got my hands on a 22,000 mile engine complete with everything. I then ditched all the wiring and power steering pump.
I had to remove the cooling thins off the alloy sump but as you will see from the pictures the engine fits under a spitfire bonnet without modifying the bulkhead, bonnet or chassis which in my book is a massive win.
Now for the next challenge which gearbox. After a lot a research I narrowed it down to the old dependable ford type 9 mainly because RWD motorsport do a bell housing. However I then got tempted by an adapter plate for a RX8 6 speed box as somebody on an other forum was selling them for other Ford engines and lots of people saying how good they were. It was shown the RX8 box is pretty much the same size as the type 9 box and it’s a lot cheaper and stronger in standard format, it also has the same spline pattern so a clutch that fits the type 9 will fit the RX8 box. So I order the adapter plate and I was promised I would have it within a week so bought via his eBay shop. Long story short I bought the RX8 box and waited for the plate that never came. 3 months of waiting and I requested my money back via eBay turns out the guy did not have it for my engine and just used my money and false promises. I am now stuck with a 6 speed gearbox I want to use. So last week I bought a gearbox with the correct bell housing pattern and some Perspex to trace the RX8 pattern and Sigma pattern ready to make my own adapter plate.
So gearbox side I am needing to cut the Perspex check fitment and then make out of steel.
While waiting the 3 months for the plate I looked at the engine induction side of things and a guy over on a popular ford forum used two sets of Triumph triple throttle bodies with his sigma engine as the inlet size and throttle mody size are a very close match, so I went the same route. He sent me his CAD drawings but they were a little out. I had the adapter plate made which I have tapped and counter sunk ready for fitment. I have also started to port match the throttle bodies to the adapter plate as the adapter plates fits the engine perfectly.
I had a quote for a custom manifold but when it came back at £1800 my reply was two words second one off. I then looked into making my own when I got lucky, a used mild steel Honda S2000 manifold came up on ebay so I bought an exhaust flange and the manifold. I have not yet chopped off the Honda flange. I need to reshape and angle correctly to weld the ford flange on, I will do this when the engine is mounted but I need gearbox on first.
This moves me to the rear end, spitfire diffs and rear end setup is not the best. Designed for 70bhp on a good day so lots less than 100bhp and 160bhp will over stress it, however I do not want to chop the chassis or modify the tub. For this reason I have approached it with a hybrid setup as I want to be able to swap to standard if law changes and original items only can be used.
I have elected to use GT6 rear uprights from a rotoflex car, I have had these machined to except MGF bearings and CV hub along with drive flange. This means I will be using CV joints, better bearings and still keeping the same wheel PCD. As MGF and small chassis triumphs are the same rather rare amongst modern cars 95.25 pcd this is a good match. I will be using GT6 rear drums which are plenty big enough for my light little car. The worst thing I could do here is over brake the rear and mess up the handling. I will be swapping out the diff for a modern diff using an adapter plate and changing the spring setup but will reveal more about this later in the project.
This brings me pretty upto date what happened since I got the car. Here are photos to show the above.
Anyways I picked it up early summer and it needs the usual spitfire bodywork but when it came to the engine the previous owner had bought it as part of a barn find job lot and could not get it running. As I have spent most of my life around triumphs mainly small chassis models like the GT6 and spitfire I quickly traced the problems down and got it running but a check of the engine number showed it was a 1500 dolomite engine which was not expected. I did plan on building another fast road spit engine but decided instead to set myself the challenge of building a better package for the same or less than a new fast road spitfire mk3 engine and box.
After much research I settled on the Ford Sigma 1600 engine in a variable cam format. The 1600 Sigma engine started life as a brain child of Ford and Yamaha used as a 1700 in the Ford Puma then fiesta on other ford range as the Zetec SE, not to be confused with the Zetec E as it’s a totally different engine and arrangement. The latest update changed some components and added Ti-VCT it was re branded as the Duratec Ti-VCT 1600 once again not the same as the Duratec engine, Ford just like to use tag names like the Zetec and Duratec to the engine era, It is its own engine type known as the Ford Sigma range.
Upsides of the 1600 Sigma engine.
Very very light as its all alloy
Fits in the spitfire (see images for size comparison to original engine)
Cheap for what you get
Standard form 120bhp with ECU and other bolt on bits 155bhp with no internal work. Over 200bhp has been seen on reliable proven engines
Both Caterham and Morgan use this engine in there current cars
Downsides of Sigma 1600 engine.
Different bell housing pattern to all other ford bell housing patterns.
Not much knowledge out there for tuning this engine.
Not many aftermarket parts available.
I could have gone for a bigger engine or one with more power but I don’t want to destroy the characteristics of the spitfire I love. I asked myself what I like the spitfire and it’s the handling and the revvy nature of the spitfire engine. Putting in a dirty great big v8 with loads of power might be great for a quarter mile but I want to build a twisty “A road” car, maybe the occasional club track day so loads of power is not what I want. I also want the car to look pretty stock more of a sleeper but with modern grunt. 750kg 2 seat car does not need super power for a fast road car.
So I got my hands on a 22,000 mile engine complete with everything. I then ditched all the wiring and power steering pump.
I had to remove the cooling thins off the alloy sump but as you will see from the pictures the engine fits under a spitfire bonnet without modifying the bulkhead, bonnet or chassis which in my book is a massive win.
Now for the next challenge which gearbox. After a lot a research I narrowed it down to the old dependable ford type 9 mainly because RWD motorsport do a bell housing. However I then got tempted by an adapter plate for a RX8 6 speed box as somebody on an other forum was selling them for other Ford engines and lots of people saying how good they were. It was shown the RX8 box is pretty much the same size as the type 9 box and it’s a lot cheaper and stronger in standard format, it also has the same spline pattern so a clutch that fits the type 9 will fit the RX8 box. So I order the adapter plate and I was promised I would have it within a week so bought via his eBay shop. Long story short I bought the RX8 box and waited for the plate that never came. 3 months of waiting and I requested my money back via eBay turns out the guy did not have it for my engine and just used my money and false promises. I am now stuck with a 6 speed gearbox I want to use. So last week I bought a gearbox with the correct bell housing pattern and some Perspex to trace the RX8 pattern and Sigma pattern ready to make my own adapter plate.
So gearbox side I am needing to cut the Perspex check fitment and then make out of steel.
While waiting the 3 months for the plate I looked at the engine induction side of things and a guy over on a popular ford forum used two sets of Triumph triple throttle bodies with his sigma engine as the inlet size and throttle mody size are a very close match, so I went the same route. He sent me his CAD drawings but they were a little out. I had the adapter plate made which I have tapped and counter sunk ready for fitment. I have also started to port match the throttle bodies to the adapter plate as the adapter plates fits the engine perfectly.
I had a quote for a custom manifold but when it came back at £1800 my reply was two words second one off. I then looked into making my own when I got lucky, a used mild steel Honda S2000 manifold came up on ebay so I bought an exhaust flange and the manifold. I have not yet chopped off the Honda flange. I need to reshape and angle correctly to weld the ford flange on, I will do this when the engine is mounted but I need gearbox on first.
This moves me to the rear end, spitfire diffs and rear end setup is not the best. Designed for 70bhp on a good day so lots less than 100bhp and 160bhp will over stress it, however I do not want to chop the chassis or modify the tub. For this reason I have approached it with a hybrid setup as I want to be able to swap to standard if law changes and original items only can be used.
I have elected to use GT6 rear uprights from a rotoflex car, I have had these machined to except MGF bearings and CV hub along with drive flange. This means I will be using CV joints, better bearings and still keeping the same wheel PCD. As MGF and small chassis triumphs are the same rather rare amongst modern cars 95.25 pcd this is a good match. I will be using GT6 rear drums which are plenty big enough for my light little car. The worst thing I could do here is over brake the rear and mess up the handling. I will be swapping out the diff for a modern diff using an adapter plate and changing the spring setup but will reveal more about this later in the project.
This brings me pretty upto date what happened since I got the car. Here are photos to show the above.
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