Yes it is, but is it in a familiar setting? Hint: in a “familiar” sort of way, it is.
The Triumph Herald was identified by nlpnt. Well done!
CC Clue: That Engine Looks Rather Familiar…
– Posted on November 15, 2013
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Curbside Classics Archives
GM’s famous ( infamous ) 60-degree V6. The car looks like it might be a BMW 2002 or 320i.
It also looks to me like the FWD version of the GM 3.1, like from an A body or something. Yet it’s mounted in a RWD car. Going to guess Saab (former famliy member).
Can’t be SAAB, the hood design is wrong for starters.
Dunno about a SAAB. It has a mechanical fan on the front.
Some GM engine in a 70’s Opel Manta or Opel 1900. The fuse box on the left is probably an ‘adaptation’ for the engine controls. I’ll have to dig out photos of my Manta to look. maybe the cover is just off!
Anybody up for an Opel Manta CC? I have some pics from an example still roaming the streets in my area.
It’s an Opel Manta. The forward tilt hood, hinge location, and the hood peak identify it for me.
It’s too bad for the Earl Sheib paint job, as Mantas looked good in their original yellow.
I’d like to see a Manta please Lt.I did plenty miles in a metallic green 78 that my brother had.Nice looks,quick,reliable and not to keen on the hard stuff
I was going to say Opel. That weird brake linkage looks familiar but I cant pin it down. But what I did find interesting was that the swap uses some if not all of the donor car electrics. That wiring harness and fuse center is 100% GM. The radiator isn’t stock to either the car or the motor. Even the air cleaner is from the donor car. Looks like a home made type of Dzus fastener holding the hood down on the cowl area. It even has the stock FWD exhaust. Crossover at the front of the motor with the intermediate pipe coming off the left side exhaust manifold. I guess the fabricator couldn’t find a CamaroBird 2.8/3.1/3.4 or S-10 2.8 in the boneyard to scavange parts from.
Last minute edit. I’m going to say something from the UK. I was just thinking about the millions(OK thousands) of SBC powered Jaguars out there. I’m just trying to pin down the tilt foward hood and funky brake linkage.
Could also be an Opel Ascona, but in the USA the Ascona was called 1900! The Vauxhall Cavelier was a Ascona B not Ascona A based variant! Manta just had a different body on the same mechanical chassis!
I’d love a cc on the Manta… My college roommate saw one parked on the road last year in New Jersey and took pictures to send me! 35 years after we drove to Shelter Island in my first Manta!
the exhaust would be going over the flywheel end, unless they swapped manifolds side to side to run it round to the front, but that still doesn’t make much sense as the belt drive would be in the way.
It’s a head scratcher!
I bet they used the FWD exh manifolds so they could get exhaust out of the driver’s side head w/o interfering with the steering. It certainly looks like the crossover is high enough to clear the water pump, the only thing that would be really hard to relocate so it seems like a good solution to stick a V where an I once resided w/o having steering clearance issues.
I have no idea, but I’ll just hazard a guess and say it’s a 3.1 from a Beretta or Corsica transplanted into a 1980s Caprice or Impala.
That’s wierd.
One thing I can say with assurance is that the dark green car used to be yellow.
Whatever it is, it’s a head scratcher, so far.
What I DO know is it can’t be a SAAB, because of the way the hood is designed. SAAB, and some others, like the late 80’s era Buick Electra had a full width hood that when you released it, the front popped up a bit, and forward a bit, allowing you to then raise the hood from the windshield up, revealing the tops of the fenders in the process.
When you closed, you lowered the hood, then pushed the front towards the windshield, while pressing down to latch.
This is a simple hinged setup whereby you simply grabbed the released end by the windshield and lifted up, as seen here.
Other than that, I have NO clue.
V-6 Vega conversion?
Ahhh, memories… My first car, a 1991 Lumina Eurosport, had the 3.1 liter engine. Idled rather poorly when I got it, so 16-year-old me started poking around the engine bay. See that connector that brings a couple vacuum lines into the throttle body housing? That had popped out of its hole, so it was sucking air. I RTV’d it in place, and it held for the 4 years I drove that car. Actually, now that I think of it, I also had a zip tie securing the vacuum lines as a backup. My new car, built 23 years later, has an engine with less than 2/3 the displacement that makes almost double the horsepower, and gets better fuel economy/emissions to boot. Progress!
I have no idea what car that lump in the picture is wedged into, though…
It looks like a Opel Manta with a transplanted 3.1l engine. The radiator looks like it came from a 1980’s Toyota Truck.
http://www.carid.com/1983-toyota-pick-up-cooling-parts/replace-radiator-5180672.html
Pic
I reckon its a Malaise Era GM V6 in a Triumph Dolomite.
Thus resulting in a poor result no matter which way you look at it.