Austin Healey
In 2008 we took on an experimental project. A customer wanted to drive his Austin-Healey Sprite at speeds a little faster than the 1275 cc engine could take it.
Austin-Healey never made a Sprite with a turbocharged engine. Luckily, they did make a version of the Austin Metro, introduced in 1980, powered by a turbocharged version of the Sprite’s engine.
We had to re-route the pipes to accommodate the new arrangement of turbocharger and intercooler.
This stronger center main cap is a common performance accessory. The four-cylinder engine’s drive shaft is held in place by only three bearings. Strengthening the middle bearing helps the engine endure the increased stresses of running under turbo boost.
Faster with a Turbo
The rebuilt turbo unit from the Metro.
See more of this Turbo Sprite on Flickr.com
See more of this turbo Sprite on Flickr.com
Must-see commercial for the Austin Metro
We re-built this 1275 cc engine with some key parts, such as the ceramic coated exhaust manifold, from a turbo Metro’s engine.
Turbos digest their air better when it’s cooled down a bit. This intercooler unit, which came from an Audi A4, fit nicely into the available space. It allowed a huge amount more air to be pushed into the combustion chamber. Although we had installed a special SU carburetor designed for the turbo Metro’s high pressure fuel system, we now had to reconfigure that carburetor’s metering system to supply enough fuel to match the higher volume of air. Measuring the air/fuel mixture with a wide-band oxygen sensor allowed us to get the system set just right.
The original routing of the exhaust down pipe worked fine in the Metro but would have collided with the Sprite’s frame. We made this exhaust down tube to get around the problem.
