Beschreibung
Sad sale but offers invited at somewhere near £13, 995. Just reduced. Open to suggestion!
Are you sat comfortably….
When my brother in law bought it (2001), the car had been sat unused for a little while. It got MOT'd and he was using it as his daily driver with a view to getting it restored. It was running a rally 'R' cam which made all it's power high in the rev range. I was a bit too lairy for everyday road use so a Fast Road cam was fitted which makes more torque but isn't as loopy as the 'R'.
It soon became obvious that the shell was too far gone to economically restore so the search was on for a new shell. LUX 330F was a bare shell 123GT that belonged to Andy Rowlands, the chairman of the Volvo Amazon Owners Club. (He also had a business in Bideford restoring Volvo Amazons).
The shell was purchased in 2004 ish and Andy was employed to transfer all the nice bits off of RLK onto LUX. It then had an MSD ignition and electronic points installed. It was also Sound-proofed with Dynamat everywhere.
The chunky wheels were sourced from a local Amazon spares dealer (they were off a P1800 race car). For the last 10 years it has only been out once or twice a year for a spin around the block and a clean and has been in dry store.
Engine:
Bored out to 2033 (keeping the original stroke). This was the configuration for the 'works spec' rally cars. The block was also machined with a "hot bed plate". This involves bolting a thick steel plate to the top of the block and torquing it to the same torque as the head. This then creates the same distortion in the block as when the head is fitted so when the head is torqued down the bores become perfectly round. As a further enhancement the machining was done with water at 90C pumped through the block to give the same distortion as when the engine is a maximum temperature, which is essential for a race engine.
Works spec head gasket (essential for high compression).
Lightened and balanced crank rods & flywheel
Volvo 240 Turbo clutch (the only one man enough for the job).
Strengthening collar added to oil pump (pump drive will fail at high revs without this).
Mahle Forged Pistons.
10. 5:1 compression (High Octane fuel only!).
Ballanced and lightened Flywheel.
Gas flowed big valve head (from a Volvo 144 injection) which run the biggest valves that can be fitted.
Double valve springs.
“Fast Road” cam.
Sports exhaust and manifold.
MSD Ignition and 45, 000v coil.
Suspension:
Lowered 25mm on Spax adjustable shock absorbers with Progressive springs.
Brakes:
Braided hoses all round.
Servo fitted.
It came to me last year when I had my car sales site, we had lavish plans, as did my sister who flattened the garage it was stored in to build a garden house! I now don’t have the garage nor the time and resources sadly to give its final list.
In April it underwent some light recommissioning in my custody and was MOT’d even though it doesn’t need one, it seemed good order to see what it needed. At this time it also had a new clutch slave and master cylinder along with an oil and filter change, coolant change, fuel drain and a few other bits and bobs to make it lovely on the road. I had a proper old boy mechanic tweak and tune the carbs and she really is a joy. Starts on the button and drives superb!
TO DO LIST:
MECHANICS
Slight play in steering box needs adjusting
Exhaust requires a mount welding up
BODYWORK
To be concourse, you’d want to paint the whole thing and that really would make it something special, but equally as an everyday classic car, it’s very useable and turns heads as it is.
Sills, have been welded and are in primer.
There was always a plan to get the wings and doors aligned better. It’s not miles out but certainly the passenger door hinges need tweaking to get it closing better. It requires a good shove!
Paint - various dings and rust spots:
Top of wings
Passenger front sill rust where door clips.
Dent in the passenger door just beneath the handle where someone used their arse to close the door. (The rubber door seals are pretty chunky and you've got to give it a good shove to close it with the windows closed. Window open and it's fine. Super air tight I guess)
Driver side door - holes for wing mirror!
Essentially, you could do bits of paint and it would be lovely, or you can paint the whole car and wow, she’d be stunning!
IMPORTANT THINGS
Run on premium fuel only. Ideally Shell Optimax.
Normal supermarket rubbish makes it bang and pop.
Starter button is under the dash to the right of the key. Ignition barrels are notorious for snapping keys.
No hardened valve seats so needs lead replacement fuel additive.
Car is available to view in High Wycombe, HP13 by arrangement.
It’s a really tough cookie to value, concourse standard ones are north of £20-28k and there aren’t many left around.
94k miles and a stack of spares, history, invoices and bills.
More photos and video available by whatsapp if required.
