Ric Wood - Classic Race Engines

Classic Race Engines.

We provide a full range of services for classic engines. From building full-on race engines for many classic racing series through to retoring and enhancing engines from cherished road cars.

We've raced more than a few classic race cars in our time and have many customers who trust us to build and restore their engines.

Example engines include :

Ford V6 Essex
Rover V8
Chevy V8
Ford Crossflow
Ford Pinto
Ferrari
Bentley
Jaguar

A with all our race engines, we back up our experience with sophisticated methods and tools such as our dynometer, gas flow bench, CNC crankshaft balancer, CNC valve seat machine and CNC milling machines. This enables us to design and the deliver the finest possible engine to meet the requirement.

Call us for more details on any of our classic engine services.

Classic Racing Engines

By "Classic" we mean engines of the modern classic era (say 1970 onwards) . The Classic Racing scene is becoming increasingly popular. We love it. Over the years we have built a number of facinating classic racing engines for clients and our own race cars.

We have all the facilities and expertise required to build, repair or upgrade any type of classic engine. We fully recognise the limits of older engines built using less sophisticated techniques and metals etc. We are also aware of long standing issues with some engines which we have found solutions to. (For example limits to cylinder head flow and cooling issues).

Handled with care and experience.

When we build a classic race engine, it is built to the customers requirements but with due consideration to the age of the engine and the state of technology at the time it was built. We do not seek to over stress the engine by going for more power than it could possibly handle. We take care to incrementally discover any issues with the engine before going for the maximum power we think is appropriate.

The Ford Essex engine is a good example. We have been building these engines for many year for race and fast road applications. We've become aware for instance , of the limitations of the standard head in terms of absolute flow but also cooling. A standard head cannot be expected to perform reliably at racing speeds due to cooling issues creating hot-spots and head cracking. As a result of years of development, taking this engine from standard 138 BHP to 200BHP then 300BHP and finally to 400BHP we found and resolved all of the weak points in this engine. Our ultimate Ford V6 now delivers fantastic power and reliability. Its a real race winner.

We follow the same path for any other engine. We consider all consequences of changes to the engine and the type of application it will be used in.

Restoration and Repair

We not only build classic race engines. We also restore and repair classic cars and classic engines to either their former glory or enhance them to give them a new lease of life. Not just for race applications, but also for road and concourse use.

Engine repair.
Engine re-tuning (Using dyno or Rolling road).
Blueprinting.
Seasonal rebuild.
Full engine rebuild and enhancement.
Full race engine build for any race series or road application.
Engine modifications - Bore, stroke, gas flowed head, Turbo or supercharger.

If you have a cherished car and want to get the best from it, call Ric for some no obligation advice on the next step.... or better still, pay us a visit. There's always plenty to see at our premises.

Classic Engines - Case examples

Well its early days on this new website so the following list is quite recent but we hope to build it up. We are very proud of our engines and an interesting classic engine is always worth talking about. We'll be adding to this list as we go along.

Bentley Turbo
Ford Essex V6
Ford Cosworth GAA 3.4 litre V6
Ford Pinto SOHC
Ferrari