The Manta is Turbocharged/ Fuel injected/ Water injected/Nitrous Oxide injected/is fitted with an anti-lag/launch control.........bhp is over 250 and torque is over 275 ft/Ib. Top speed is 152 mph. It redlines in 5th @ 6250 revs/min. I have spent about £20 000 on modifying it.

I bought the car which was a GTE Limited Edition Exclusive model in 1990 with 20 000 miles on the clock. My initial intention was to leave it in standard spec. However, I get bored easily and with my engineering background, began to modify the car.

Firstly, I fitted some lower springs and bilstein shocks and the handling was transformed, but I can't carry rear passengers because the car is now so low.

I considered fitting one of Irmscher, the Opel/Vauxhall tuning specialist, but they quoted me £3500 for a 2.4 engine.......!!!!! However, they did suggest that I contact Pace Products for one of their turbo conversions....!!.

I telephoned a company called Pace Products, the owner David Lazenby who suggested a 6 PSI conversion. Cost approx. £2000 this would give me approx. 150bhp and a lot more torque. However the conversion involved quite a bit of work, specialised castings etc. The work was duly carried out, it took approx. two weeks. The drive back home was fantastic. In the first couple of weeks I had some problems, mostly overheating, but I managed to sort them out with David's help by phone.

As you may know, a turbo'd engine is very tuneable, so over a period of five years, the output of the engine has gone up from 150bhp @ 6 PSI to 250 @ 20 PSI, more than double the standard output. This has been done by engineering not simply by increasing the boost pressure. See std power specs.

Std engine specifications

110bhp @ 5400

120 Ibs ft torque @ 3000

C.R 9.4 : 1

After the initial Turbo conversion, the car was then taken off the road for about 18 months, during which time I removed the engine, front and rear suspension etc. I sprayed painted the underside plus the suspension parts engine/gearbox/propshaft etc. I had all the chroming done and all the alloy engine parts were hand polished and I fitted a brand new 2.2 cylinder head, (this lowered my CR and came as standard with big valves, and enabled me to use unleaded Super) including a new camshaft, rockers, etc. However to fit the head I had to modify the inlet manifold, thermostat housing, throttle body and some other bits and pieces, so nothing is easy in this game.

In 1992 I met my friend Richard Lamb, at Brighton Speed Trials. He runs ERL in Peacehaven he has helped enormously with my project. The Manta GTE has a Bosch LE fuel injection system. This system is controlled by an "unchippable brain" which is retained for off boost performance, the ERL management system (no longer in production) takes control over when the turbo kicks in, ultilising the 4 additional fuel injectors, controlling the ignition under boost as well as the anti-lag now.

Another addition is a anti-lag/launch control system, which Richard made up for me. It is operated by a button on my gear lever or on my steering wheel, so basically it enables me to accelerate from a standing start with maximum boost off idle, because of the power I have to select 2nd gear to start! but it still should do a sub 6 sec 0-60.

Also it is fitted one of Richard Lamb's ERL (Aquamist) programmable water injection systems (ERL MF2) this has enabled me to run 20psi with no drop off in power on hot days, on a rolling road test the inlet temperature dropped from 69 C to 50 C. This has proved very reliable to suppress detonation when running high boost pressures.

I have also fitted a NOS Nitrous oxide injection system utilising a single fogger jet, which should give me another 50-75 bhp.

Basically I know my limitations regarding precision machining etc so for parts such as the cylinder head, clutch, brake conversions parts were modified to my specifications but I fitted them to the car. The main problem was finding someone to do the modifications in the first place, because it wasn't a Ford and I didn't have unlimited resources.

I've continued to develop the car since then and I guess I'm nearly there now, but as you know there's always room for improvement.

My intention from the beginning was to build a modified car with power to match some of the manufacturer's £30 000+ cars. That drove like a factory car and that bridged the gap between modified cars and customised street machines and I think that I have achieved this, although its been hard work, I feel it has been worth it. I now have a car that I can use at various events such as Brighton speed trials and run-what-you-brung events and belonging to Club 89. I can also drive the car on various racing circuits, such as Brands Hatch etc. the handling and performance is excellent. So all in all the project has been a success.........

I have carried out most of the work myself to show that you can have plenty of fun and power without going to a V8. I have spent about £20,000 on this project but you only need to drive it to see that it has been worth it.