Hey guys, I did a quick search but didn't find much. I have an old 1972 triumph spitfire that im just itching to take apart and put in a new engine so I can have a little more fun with it. I looked at all of the different swaps they've done with them and right now im between rotary power and miata power and leaning towards the miata. I'd switch in the whole drivetrain, engine, transmission, diff with rear end(shortened of course) because its a bit wide, and a custom drive shaft. I just wanted to know if you guys had any ideas or thoughts on what I should do, right now its choking in the 60 horsepower range. My grandma can run faster than that.

 

Swap in a Triumph GT6 motor and be done with it.

 

Swap in a 1.8 and be done with it.

 

leave room for a turbo/IC for when your butt dyno recalibrates to the added hp
if miata rear axle in too wide, how much room do you really have in the engine bay?

 

At 1625lbs it's substancially lighter then a 1.8 miata, you souldn't need a trubo.

 

I wanted to put a newer engine such as a BP miata engine into a pre '70 triumph spitfire for quite some time now. Wanna know what I'd swap in there if it was my car?
1st I'd get a 1.8 and keep it N/A...I'd go high comp pistons, '99 head with lots of head work, lighten as much rotating mass as possible, and of course balance everything.
I'd also run an ITB setup. Maybe shoot for like 170 whp?
Pretty much this youtube car, but lighter and smaller cause spitfire:

 

LS swap for sure.

 

IIRC there's a spit on the GRM forum that got a miata engine swap and then some... though I think he tore it up for the crappy welds (which IMO could be fixed)

 

that 1.8 looks nice but it would probably be pretty bone stock until I save up some more money (ah the life of a broke student) anyway, I didn't see the miata swapped spit on the grm forums, only a rotory, do you have a link for it by chance? I need to do as much research as possible, this is gonna be one heck of a project.

 

google found this:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/for...s/28380/page8/

 

Oh this is looking better and better. maybe I can manage to put the whole rear end on without to much fab work... the wheelbase is much wider though... Fender flares? or is that to lazy, should I cut it up?

 

If you're a broke student I hope you have some good fab skills. Like most other non-vanilla swap, this one will end up costing a lot in odds and ends, plus fab to make it all work.

 

Hey, guys I'm in school and I'm broke. I want to take the motor out of a miata, which from reading is the new version of the spitfire and better in every way. I then want to transplant everything to the spitfire, so I guess I want a spitfire body on the miata. I wont have the money to even purchase the miata until I'm out of school in 2016. Even then I will have my student loans to pay for and probably wont have the cash to do this until 2020. I know this is 10 years from now but I feel that my goals will be the same when I'm 30. I've never even driven a miata so I have no idea if I will even like this car after I'm done with it. I feel like spending 5k and 500hrs of labor is a fair trade off for that 40hp. Anyways just figured I would post on this board because you guys look like nice gentleman that will entertain me with jibber jabber while I'm in Psychology class. Tootles...


Is this about the gist of it?

 

Hope not. Psychology class is wayyy more intresting then this thread

 

Signing in from my polysci class, where is when you need him...

 

In Tampa, there are two Spitifires with 12 A running around. I think I'd rather do that than a heavy *** BP engine.

 

12A's aren't light, they are however, physically small.

That said, rotaries in spitfires are da biz-niz.

 

I drove a 74 spitfire as a rain car in college when I was into bikes.

 

The rear needs to be about 8" narrower to work under the Spitfire. I had a GT6 with a 302 in it (bought it that way, total Frankenstein job). Car had a solid axle/4 link in it when I bought it and I decided it needed a decent IRS instead. Bought a Miata rear suspension/diff and did a bunch of measuring. Sold the car after I figured out I could barely get in with no cage and a helmet, and the car wasn't going to see a track without a cage.

To use the rear suspension you'll have to build structure to attach it to as the Spitfire is much different. You'll also probably have to widen the trans tunnel and modify the frame rails as the Triumph gearbox is much smaller than a Miata box and barely fits in between the rails.

It's not a project to go into without a ton of cash or significant fabrication skills.