The first MGB V8?

[danmas]

http://mgbsmadeinaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/MGB-Buick-V8-Sports-Car-World-Nov-1967.pdf

[Moderator]

If the pdf gives you trouble, you can also read that article here:
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Sports-Car-World-MGB-Buick.htm

[Jim Stabe]

When I did my engine conversion back in 1971 I thought I was the only one that had thought of the idea. Later when the MGBV8 came out I found that Costello was developing the prototype in the UK at the same time as I was doing mine. Seems we were both way behind the curve. However, I will claim the first Jag rear suspension installation.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Finishing mine in '88, I was way behind you guys. But still, that was 24 years ago. How time flies! In '67 I would have been in the 8th grade. Hardly old enough to be planning an engine conversion. But I DID have this wicked recumbent bike I made out of parts.

Jim

[Moderator]

This conversion dates to 1966:
http://www.britishv8.org/MG/GeorgeSnively.htm

I don't believe for one second that Dr Snively's MGB was the first. You gotta remember that the idea of putting an American engine in a British sportscar goes back to the very beginning of sports car racing; MG TC V8 racecars were almost commonplace on racetracks in the 1950s. American V8s powered various Allards, Listers, Jaguars, ACs and even apparently less suitable cars such as Frazer Nashs, not to mention countless "real race cars" such as Lotus 15s and Lotus 19s. So why should the MGB have been any different, and why should it have taken long to happen?

[danmas]

I don't believe for one second that Dr Snively's MGB was the first.

Curtis,

I'm inclined to agree with you. I bet the first one was done by the end of '63. I thought the article I posted a link to looked familiar, but I didn't remember I had read it here.

It's not really important, though, who was first; what is important is who'll be next!

[Jim Stabe]

Imagine how quickly the number of swaps would have grown if we had the internet back then.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Seems like I read something about a conversion in '63 somewhere but darned if I can remember anything about it. Like Dan says, it is the next one that is important. But isn't it amazing that the first swaps done are still so popular?

Jim

[HealeyRick]

We'll probably never know who the "first" guy was to do any of these conversions.  The only way most of us learned about the early conversions was that they were featured in a magazine article in Hot Rod. There must be plenty of conversions that were done that no one ever heard of.  Consider that of the fifty Austin-Healey 100S cars made, at least seven of them had a V8 in them at some point.  There's a June 1956 Hot Rod story of a 283 Chevy being installed in a Healey 100 (three years after production of the 100 began)  by Max Balchowsky whose Hollywood Motors shop motto was, "We can put anything in anything."  By 1968 when Hot Rod ran a piece entitled "Heavrolet" on the Hurst company doing a 327 swap into a Healey, the story said: "Just about everyone's uncle on the West Coast has, at one time or another, helped someone make the swap." Think Carroll Shelby was the first to put a V8 into an AC?  Think again.  Check out this really interesting story of the CorVace: http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/originality-forum/94884-corvace-photos.html

[pointnette]

Taken from the Morgan UK site in 2006. I looked there again the other day and it seems to be gone.
1940s:
Four Four 4 seater

In this period some interesting experiments were made. A Ford 22 horsepower V8 Pilot engine was fitted to the Morgan chassis, which gave a most vivid performance. Due to a taxation increase from 15 shillings to 25 shillings per horsepower, this project was abandoned at the prototype stage.
 
If only they'd said, "Damn the 10 shillings extra and full speed ahead !" Morgan may have changed the course of the world...


Stan

[roverman]

Of course, guys like MT and Reventlow, beat all of us to the punch, with dedicated race cars. I bought my first alum. olds V8 in 1970 ?  I became somewhat dejected when a friend said "those are all worthless, eat up with electrollysis". This is the "same" friend tried to convince me, early Pontiac Tempest used a "very large speedo cable, for the drive shaft, this why they put the trans in the back, because the speedo cable, woun't work in reverse". Sage words-indeed, from the pasture.  Cheers, roverman.

[Preform Resources]

When Healy Rick mentioned Hot Rod mag,, it reminded me of an article a long time ago in HR about a mini with a cadilac engine
in it they titled it Cadiminor or Minilac.......
Dave

[pointnette]

I've always had a soft spot for these...

American Brawn meets British Style
The 1936 Railton Tourer is a Hudson Terraplane in disguise
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2011/04/01/hmn_feature4.html

Stan

[MGBV8]

When Healy Rick mentioned Hot Rod mag,, it reminded me of an article a long time ago in HR about a mini with a cadilac engine
in it they titled it Cadiminor or Minilac.......

Remember  the convertible Nash Metropolitan V8 that was in Hot Rod? It was set up as a canyon carver.

[classic conversions]

I did a 215 ci 2v carb, 3 speed trans swap in a B in the early seventies,  after Jim S swap. I had heating problems then.
Installed the engine as it came out of the little Buick. Went to pep boys and bought a 3 speed floor linkage, not a Hurst but a cheap one.
Steel wheels and baby moons and a home made roll bar.

First gear was useless, it became a two speed.

Memory lane.

[roverman]

Way back in 1963, I started the engine/trans swap in my 1950 Stude PU. I was 14, with just enough knowledge, to be dangerous/lol. I used a 1956 Dodge PU 241" Red Ram V8, with  incumbent 3 speed stick. I have often wondered how cool, had it been with a 215" at about 300 lbs lighter ? Point is moot-but ?  Cheers, roverman.

[Scott Costanzo]

My Uncle Fred had a gas station on Long Island during the 60s and 70s. He always seemed to come up with neat cars when he visited like a 67 Corvette convertible I lusted after as a young kid. Unfortunately I don't remember all the details but an MG T series showed up at his brother's, my other uncle, who lived a couple of blocks from us. It was my Uncle Fred's and I think he was trying to sell it. The only things I remember about it is it was yellow and it had a small block Chevy with headers coming out either side of the hood. It was the first MG I was ever exposed to. This had to be in 1964 or 1965.

Haven't thought about this for years!

[nobogez07]

I've just recently joined but I was captivated by a 62 Bugeyed Sprite that had a 327 in it!  This was 1967.  It's what's kept the fire going to do something similar.