The Fine Lines - Anglia 105E (Part 2)

Now it’s finished, Tom’s Anglia is seeing regular street and strip action - catch it mid-flight at the Classic Ford Show

To start with, Tom was planning to build the car as a budget build, however it now looked so good that that went by the wayside and the spending began, with Tom ordering a pile of top-notch parts — starting with a snorting 1700 HPE Cross flow. “I got them to go to town on it with forged rods and pistons topped off with a full-race head with huge valves and alloy roller rockers. I also specified a set of James Harris’ beautifully made toothed belt pulleys and an electric water pump.”

The fuelling for this rapid engine was taken care of by a Facet Red Top pump, Filter King pressure regulator and a shiny pair of 45 Webers providing a nice bark when the throttle is buried. The exhaust duties are taken care of by a 4-into-1 manifold hooked up to a trick exhaust with a Y-section and side-exit, as well as a rear tailpipe. This is controlled by an electric solenoid and at the flick of the switch can either be rear-exit (silenced) or side-exit (straight through) for drag racing. Clever stuff.

The transmission is a trip down memory lane, as instead of a five-speed it’s a 2000E four-speed unit. Then bringing up the rear is a 3J Driveline slipper transmitting the drive through a pair of their shafts. This bulletproof rear end is needed due to the abuse that Tom has in store for the little Angle box.

Clean, white interior looks great and breaks up the gold and brown exterior. The RS Turbo Recaros aren’t staying

“I built the car to be used and abused, and it will be driven everywhere including frequent trips to the Pod. If it gets stone chips, so be it!” grins Tom.

One of the last jobs on the list was to sort the interior. It’s a fairly functional place to be, with most of the original fare removed. The dash was smoothed and all other unnecessary holes were welded and smoothed echoing the exterior. Tom then decided to paint the interior a creamy white colour and tied this into the build by colour-keying the centres of the staggered sized Performance Superlite wheels. This was a masterstroke as they work well with the gold exterior.

Digital Stack gauges now replace the old analogue dials and keep an eagle eye on the Crossflow’s vital statistics. Alloy door cards with rolled beads were fitted and painted and a rear bulkhead was constructed from steel smoothing over the area where the rear seat once resided. A smaller, deep-dish steering wheel replaced the old one that would look more a home on a London bus.

Anglia 105E engine

All rounder

So what does the future hold for the Anglia? “Well I built it, so I’m going to use it,” says Tom. “I certainly won’t be tiptoeing round in it!” And he doesn’t, if his recent trip to the Pod was concerned. It was driven the best part of 100 miles there, ran a 13.9-second quarter- mile, and drove home with no fuss! As Tom has well and truly caught the drag strip bug, we can only imagine those quarter-mile times will continue to tumble, too.