Findhorn cars offer an exciting range of engines to suit your individual requirements. First there is the classic sports car engine, the MGB Engine.

No English sports car engine was produced in such volume as the 1800cc B series engine. It is a simple straightforward engine, which we use as standard in our four cylinder cars, because it is simply evocative of sports cars of a certain period, it is reliable and parts are easily available.

The strong, well engineered B series engine was in production for 30 years – longer if one counts its immediate forebears and successors – powering both the MGA and the MGB. As tuned for the MGB, this twin-carb version produces 90 BHP, with its characteristic throaty exhaust note. It will pull happily and strongly from low revs to the 6,000rpm red line. The only modification we recommend as a matter of course is electronic ignition, which helps to ensure reliable starting and never a missed beat.

Even the standard MGB engine gives the relatively lightweight Findhorn TF impressive acceleration through the gears and enthusiastic top speed. If you are looking for more performance, the B series engine is a perfect basis for a wide range of tuning options. The normal tuning route is a gas flowed head, with larger valves and carburettors. This allows the engine to suck in more fuel air mixture and away you go. The pre-war traditional sports car route was a super-charger, which we would recommend, before you think about fancy cam shafts. These cams can give lots more top end power but at the expense of lower speed torque.

Our recommended route to a quicker 1800 engine is super-charging, the traditional route for English sports cars.

Super-charging – or blowing – uses a blower to blow the air/fuel mixture into the engine, as opposed to relying on the engine to suck it in. The modern equivalent to a supercharger is turbo charging, an exhaust driven turbine impelling air into the engine; but we think it is a bit too modern!!

The great thing about a supercharger is that it is blowing all the time, so it is particularly effective at boosting low speed torque. Suddenly your car has become much more responsive and at the same time is not asking to be revved so hard. In the TF it is a much more relaxed experience; but that is not to say that you cannot put your foot down and surprise the drivers of modern boxes on wheels at this seemingly ancient machine appearing in the mirror and actually coming past.

The super-charger is available as a bolt on kit – just as simple as that. Off with the inlet manifold and a few pulleys and things and on with a purpose designed unit including replacement carburettor, blower and new manifold – complete backfire valve (perish the thought) and a bypass for re-circulating the mixture through the blower on light throttle. New pulleys on the front and that is about it job done!! She should fire first time.

To get a bit more technical, your engine may benefit from a rebuild before blowing. You can think about the compression ratio. The blower kit was designed for the US market where a lot of engines are 8:1 compression ratio. This is great because the blower warms the air a little and then the compression does not push the temperature up as the compression stroke ends too close to the detonation point. You can still fit the supercharger to your 9:1 engine; but what you can do with the 8:1 engine is to try a bit more boost with a faster pulley. By the way, you can change the pistons for lower compression with a simple head and sump off exercise.

If you are attracted to a traditional English sports car, you are sure to be attracted to a super charged one!!

The second engine powering Findhorn cars at differing specification levels is the Rover V8, usually in 3.5 or 3.9 form.

As with the B series 1800 engine, the Rover V8 has a long and interesting history, really because it is such a good engine. It started life in Buicks, but was judged too small in the 1960s. Here in England, it powered generation after generation of Rovers, including the Range Rover, where most were fitted.

It is very light. Its block is far lighter than the B series block, being aluminium against cast iron. When built up the engines are comparable in weight, resulting in the engines being interchangeable without major suspension changes. The V8 has always had hydraulic tappets, making it an inherently quiet engine.

In Findhorn cars, as indeed in MGBs, the more powerful B series engines and the less powerful V8s are not dissimilar in power output, but the V8 has bags more low speed torque. I am always struck by how many more gear changes people not familiar with the V8 make than I would. Open the throttle and a V8 surges what ever the revs. Naturally, as the state of tune increases, the V8 far outstrips the B series. It does have twice the cubic capacity!

It is the flexibility, the torque, the power and that V8 burble that make it such a great sports car engine, whether following the traffic, powering past as the opportunity arises or settling down for a long fast run, the engine just delivers whatever is asked of it and that includes truly astonishing acceleration in the gears.

We recommend carburettors on the 3.5 V8. These can be the original SUs, if your engine has them, with an MGB type inlet manifold and the SUs arranged at the back of the engine. Alternatively four barrel Webbers are great carburettors, well suited to the Rover V8. Both these engines start easily and don’t get flooded by electric chokes or generally have hysterics around the garage!

You can opt for a bigger V8, in which case we recommend the 3.9 EFI.

This is the last of the Classic Range Rover engines. It is a turn the key and go engine – and go and Go and GO!!

In many ways it is the easiest V8 to install despite a load of wiring, a bit of attention needed to the inlet casting and a new plenum chamber.   As with the other V8's a rebuild is advisable but like the MGB B series all the parts are readily available, including the camshaft which is as well since the original is quite likely to have politely delivered its peakier parts into the sump!!

Once the 3.9 is installed you will have a simply wonderful engine for your Findhorn. All the virtues of the 3.5 are there but more so. She will burble one second and roar the next at your beck and call. She is well mannered and happy at very low revs, exactly as one would expect of an engine tuned for a two ton Range Rover, except that the Findhorn is half the weight.

There is only so much I can say in extolling the virtues of this engine in a Findhorn car. You need to come and have a test drive!!

Oh and yes it is possible to have more power, in much the same way that if you have a Bentley, it is possible to have a Rolls!!

Within reason any engine can be fitted to a Findhorn Car. A consideration in fitting another engine is what gearbox can be matched to the engine. Again given careful engineering, there are many possibilities, but practicalities do restrict scope.