I admit it, I like MGBs. Okay it’s not something I’m proud of but it’s probably best I get it out in the open straight away. Since first being diagnosed with the affliction I’ve probably had more than ten bouts of MGB, some cases were worse than others. Full restorations, Heritage shells, V8s, Roadsters with dodgy Bermuda roofs, I’ve had them all, but my current project started off as the most boring of the lot.
It began life as a 1973 MGB GT, I got it six years ago and ran it around in standard form for the first two years. Then I found out the family history of the Rover 800 turbo engine.  It turns out the Rover engine was a development of the the O-series engine, and the O-series engine was a development of the original B-series engine. With an illustruisous family heritage like that I had to find out if the Rover
(T-16) engine would fit an MGB, well you would wouldn’t you.

Track-day cars. Usually built to be small, nimble, and ferociously quick. Cars to enjoy to their limits on a piece of finely cultivated tarmac rather than the diluted and poor driving experience on the pot-hole riddled roads of the UK.

However here at PPC we like to do things a little differently. We wanted a track-day car, but one that fitted in with the magazine philosophy of a certain (small) degree of practicality. We wanted to lap the track five-up. And in style too.

After becoming slightly besotted with the idea of owning a classic-look race car in the form of a Westfield’s Lotus XI replica, James looked for a way to do it a bit differently and for a more realistic cost.

Sensing that variety is the spice of project life, he sourced the chassis and some suspension components from an MK Indy kit car that a friend was selling. Next, he found one of the only secondhand Westfield bodyshells in existence (in Kev’s garage) and set to work combining them together, with the plan to power the lot by fitting a slightly obscure BMW bike engine.

When PPC’s Kevin Leaper had his mid life crisis he did what most petrolheads do - he bought a Porsche. Only his crisis was a little deeper than most, so he was broke. That ruled out a 911 so it had to be a 928. In an alternative galaxy the 928 could be the ultimate Porsche; big V8, stunning looks and quirky interior. Only in the Milky Way we live in they’re been completely overlooked.

Kev’s wish list included manual gearbox (very rare), black interior and a decent service history. He bought this 928 in the dark, not noticing the interior was actually brown, and the speedo worked erratically on the way home, suggesting the recorded mileage was just that, the recorded mileage, not the actual mileage.....

It’s Easter 1971 and representatives from Ford are at Brands Hatch race circuit to launch their new racecar. However, this time around it’s not a car. It’s a van.

A Transit Van to be exact. Built by Terry Drury Racing and dubbed the Supervan, the former load lugger was powered by a 400BHP 5.0-litre V8 similar to the ones Ford used in their GT40 Le Mans racers.

The Transit entered motoring folklore, spawning two spin-offs, and now we at PPC have decided we can do an equally good job.

Having decided an original Mk-1 Transit would be the only way to go the search for the right van commenced.

There could easily be a trend occurring with my staff cars that goes along desired car A, bought car B. Ownership of my 1964 3.8 E-type coupe began like most these days, by browsing on the web. But this was ten years ago and it’s hard to believe but buying cars off the web was a new concept.

At the time I was mature student funding my course by servicing cars at weekend and drinking at student bar prices. When the letter came offering a student loan I nearly threw it in the bin as I didn’t need a loan but the bit about zero interest grabbed my eye. I could get ten grand interest free and back then interest rates were pretty high. So I took the loan and started looking at cars I’d always dreamed of owning. E-types came top of the list but....

Aprils magazine features Charlie's 27 litre Rover SD1 V12. He has to take the engine out to sort out the exhaust manifold. This video show the logistics of getting an engine that size out of a car...

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