When your dream car is a sorted, lemon
yellow Anglia destined for the road and track, you’re going to need a little
bit of luck. Just ask Paul Kent.
Anglia 105E
Paul Kent is a serial Ford owner
having owned most models of the marque. The itch he couldn‘t scratch though was
the urge to get an Anglia. The trouble was however, Paul admits he can't weld
or spray, but he is a dab hand with the mechanicals. So it needed to have a
tidy shell and just to make life more difficult he wanted it to be a yellow
Anglia with a Rover V8. “I did decide against the V8 in the end,” laughs Paul.
Lemon trees
Yellow Anglias don’t grow on trees, so
after an exhausting hunt Paul found an AngIia that ticked all the boxes-the
drawback was that it was 400 miles away from his Southern home.
Anglia 105E
Undeterred, Paul made the trip to
Manchester and to his relief the Anglia was good ’un. He spent a couple of
hours going over the car with the seller and was happy with what he saw.
“I felt terrible when I went to take
the car home, as the guy who built it felt like he was losing an internal organ
he loved it so much! He was even more shocked when I announced had no intention
of trailering it home. I just jumped in and proceeded to drive it the 400-mile
distance."
Paul's family were eagerly awaiting
his arrival in the bright yellow Anglia. However, they were greeted with the
bright yellow flashing lights of an AA truck.
“I stopped for petrol on the way back
and it struggled to start again,” explains Paul. “I had to bump-start it and
from then on I realized it wasn't charging properly. As I got closer to home it
was getting dark, and the headlights were beginning to dim. A mile away from
home it just died! I couldn’t believe it, all that way to fail in the last
mile-”
Paul arrived home expecting some grief
from the waiting family and they didn‘t disappoint him! “Dad you bought a
lemon!’ they said to me,” laughs Paul. “Keith Lemon!’ The name Keith has stuck
ever since.“
English mustard
Luckily an alternator overhaul later
and the little Anglia has been mustard. Now that this problem had been sorted,
Paul could step back and check his purchase out properly - had he really bought
a lemon?
In a word, no. The Anglia turned out
to be a really good buy, the front end was really sorted with a Milton steering
set-up, coil-overs based on Cortina struts, Milton double anti-roll bar and
adjustable TCAS allowing Paul to twiddle around with the setup to his heart’s
content.
The rear end, however, was nowhere
near as tight as the front, so it required some of Paul's spannering skills.
“It was running some pretty lt knackered de-cambered rear springs, plus
turretted rear shocks, but they were past their best, too,” he says.
Hot 1600 Crossflow sports a lightened and
balanced bottom end and a very well honed, gas-flowed head
Paul leapt into action with the tool
kit and fitted new springs, adjustable GAZ shocks and a Milton A-frame
tightening things up nicely. A limited slip diff found its way into the rear
axle and a rear disc conversion completed the package and improved the Anglia’s
already good retardation even further.
Effective brakes were needed, as the
engine (built by guy called Neil Bould) was a pretty decent spec with all the
right bits. Starting with a 1600 Crossflow, the bottom end was lightened and
balanced, ARP rod bolts fitted and a high-pressure oil pump.
The top end is also well up to the job
with gas-flowed head and steel rocker posts. The sparks are taken care of by
Aldon Ignitor ignition and fuelling by a single 45 Weber Call) on a rare Lynx
manifold. “The Lynx manifold is great as it gives enough clearance for the
brake master cylinder, meaning I don‘t need a reverse pedal box," grins
Paul.
The spent gasses are taken care of by
a mystery bunch-of-bananas exhaust manifold hooked up to a single-box exhaust
ending in a side exit. It sounds sublime especially on full chat where it
spends a fair bit of its time. “It runs out of puff at 120 mph, but to be fair
that’s on a four-speed 2000E gearbox,” says Paul. “I could fit a five-speed,
but I can’t bring myself to cut the shell about.”
