I have been keeping photographic record of John Stewart's Manta since he started the body work. He took it down to the bare metal and refitted it with a Manta 400 bodykit and resprayed the whole car in a solid red. John plans to fit a set of Revolution alloys, 8s on the front and 9s on the rear. They aren't an easy wheel to find. The manta has been home to a C20XE which was modified to take a turbo, it works well and goes well, the same engine has been used in two of his previous Novas, one of the Novas was a red 2 door saloon. Needless to say this Manta is quick. I drove the car before it was taken to the workshop and it doesn't take much to make the back end of the car overtake the front, You need to be a very confident driver to even consider getting behind the wheel of this car. It will be good to see the manta back out on the road again, hopefully soon. Respect to John Stewart for breathing life back into this rare beauty. More Photos on N I PETROLHEADS Bebo group. http://www.bebo.com/ni-petrolhedz
Happy days. The wheels for the manta were sourced. John had to drive to the far end of Donegal to get the revolutions. He is £500 lighter but glad to have finally got the wheels. Next on the shopping list, tyres!
That would have been it. It goes as well as it looks. John is overhauling the engine and gearbox now in preparation for some extra horse power. He needs a limited slip diff for it too.
Might be doing away with the red top and replacing it with a V6, Turbocharged of course. Looking for a nice round number of 300 bhp with plenty of torque. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
Got the wheels on the manta. Started offering the V6 up to get it into position. It's going to be a bit of an operation to get it to sit properly. The sump needs modified to clear the Crossmember and steering rack, also the oil pickup pipe needs sorted and then the engine mounts need to be fabricated. We think the brake servo unit is not going to have clearance past the head of the right bank. but we will worry about it when we come to it.
