So What Do We Have Here?

The Hobbit may be a bit more (and sometimes less) than meets the eye.

With the car off the trailer and in the daylight, I can better assess what I just overpaid for. Walking around the body, I notice several places where the paint is blistering. I can also see that there is body filler cracking in front of the A post. The hard top is an interesting piece of custom work with some large chunks of gelcoat or filler missing. On the plus side, the 13″ Minilite wheels and tires appear to be brand new. Up front there is a custom lower lip spoiler, an interesting hood scoop, and some driving lights. In the back, there is a Monza quad tip exhaust.

The interior has been trimmed with custom seating surfaces with black vinyl with red centers. The door cards are black with red stitching. There is a custom center console box that is trimmed in matching red vinyl with black sides. The carpet appears to be in fair condition while the dashboard has a plastic dash cap to cover the usual cracking. There a five speed shifter on the tunnel that comes up at a curious angle.

Under the hood is where it gets most interesting so far. Having not done adequate research I failed to spot the very clear differences between this engine and the 1500cc Triumph Spitfire engine the car should have come with. I decided to post a question with engine picture to one of the MG groups I recently joined. The consensus was that it was a Toyota motor and that I lucked into a great engine. It was indeed a 3TC motor, likely from a early 80’s Corolla. Mated to the engine was an equally desirable Toyota T50 5 speed transmission. This could be fun.