V8 Sports Car Project for sale

Anyone out there looking for a cool project? My friend Ed Murphy passed away before completing this "sports car" project. He was an engineer and the project shows the breadth of his knowledge. It has the Olds/Buick aluminum V8, borg warner T-5 trans, and modified Triumph/Lotus suspension pieces. It has a dry sump. The heads have been machined. The weber carb, Edelbrock intake manifold, crane cams, and etc. are still in their boxes. There are three disassembled motors, and many other parts. The original drawing and plans for the vehicle are amazing. With specific questions about the car please contact John Murphy (Ed's brother) 215-565-6508. If you need photos please email me at ezrahaines@comcast.net. Or if you want to take a look and are in the Philadelphia area please email me. The parts are an easy sell but we do not want to part it out, and would love to see the project completed. $1900. Thanks Photos

Looks like a really good start on a fun ride! GLWS!

I'm calling dibs. Spoke to the owner last night. Going to pick it up this weekend. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but as a TR8/Rover V8 guy, I gotta have this.

Sorry about the passing of your friend. He would have fit i well here with a project like that. Someone (tr8todd) is going to be quite lucky with that project for that price. That's Challenge priced.

tr8todd wrote: I'm calling dibs. Spoke to the owner last night. Going to pick it up this weekend. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but as a TR8/Rover V8 guy, I gotta have this.

Awesome! I loved the guy's choice of engine, too.

tr8todd wrote: I'm calling dibs. Spoke to the owner last night. Going to pick it up this weekend. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but as a TR8/Rover V8 guy, I gotta have this.

I'm glad it's going to a good home that will do it proud. What's the wheelbase. My first thought was fiberglass TR7 clone over the top.

Glad to see a GRMer get this. If it were closer id be all over it!

Holy crap! I would love to see that with a riveted aluminum skin over it.

When I spoke to the seller, the first question I asked was what was the wheelbase. He thinks its 98". Don't have a clue what I will do with it, but it will fit right in here with all the Rover V8 stuff I have. Just when I swore off Rovers and starting drinking the LSX Koolaide, this has to go and pop up. I'll get it home, evaluate it and go from there. Most of the Rover stuff I already have in spades sitting on the shelfs here...except for that dry sump. Honestly that is what seals the deal for me. Already have a buddy that wants to drop a Miata on top of it and go turbo Miata driveline. Just might be the way to go. Definitely not going TR8 with this thing. I already have 6 of those, including the one getting the LS3. Just went and picked up my trailer out of storage and installed 4 new wheels and tires. I'm ready for a road trip.

Todd-

Insanely sweet score ! !

It would take forever to find one and no doubt interest will fail before hand, but that chassis really deserves a fiberglass Lotus body shell !

Why screw with the engine, it's in and done and would go perfectly with the Lotus body.

Yes ! ? ! ? ! ?

This thing is even cooler in person than in pictures! The aluminum work alone is like artwork to me.

Its home. Its real cool. It will be easy to finish, except for the whole no body thing. It came with so many spare Buick/Olds aluminum V8 parts, even I am overwhelmed. How does this 2016 challenge thing work? If I buy a car for $1900, and sell off $3K in spare parts, am I at a negative balance? Probably going to remove all the dry sump, custom crazy hand made aluminum castings, and electric water pump. Then I'll just drop in a known running 4.0 Rover and 5 speed and call it a day. The brand new still in the boxes spares include a cam, lifters, 4 barrel intake and carb, ARP fasteners, AN hoses and fittings, every conceivable gasket, new 20 over pistons on lightened rods, engine bearings, electric water pump, and everything associated with the dry sump. Everything on the car is brand new, him jointed, hand made, or rebuilt. It came with used spares from 3 more engines, plus rough castings in aluminum for another dry sump install, plus the bucks needed to make more castings for both the dry sump and the custom aluminum uprights in the back.

You can go to zero but not negative the way I read the rules.

Sounds like you should go into the dry sump Rover/Buick business.

Sounds like the car went to the right guy.

I just looked at this thing for the first time on my computer. Phones don't show crap. The construction is incredible. I wish I had looked earlier.

I had a chance to give it a good once over this morning. It has a TR4A rear end, with custom uprights cast in aluminum. The front uses Spitfire kingpins with all kinds of custom arms. Installed are what I think are early Girling aluminum finned racing calipers. If I can figure out what they are and what they fit, they should be worth a boatload to someone with a vintage formula car. They are brand new, and you can't get these things anymore as far as I know. Construction is basically boxed, glued, and riveted aircraft aluminum. There are steel tubes front and rear, but they don't appear to run completely under the boxed aluminum like you would expect. The aluminum is the monocoque. Sort of looks like an indy car where the main cockpit is CF and everything attaches to it. Found a couple of things I'd do different, but I can't deny the construction is top notch. It has a 102" wheelbase, so unless a cool body that fits that dimension falls from the sky, I'll probably just cycle fender it and leave it open. I'll add extra bars if I track or hillclimb with it. The amount of work it must have taken to get to this point is absolutely mind blowing. This thing is art. Can't wait to see what it ends up as. I'll pull the engine and tranny in the next couple of days and roll it across the scales to see what the rolling chassis weighs in at. I'm guessing 1,000 pounds or less. I'm going to try and get a photo bucket account so I can post pictures if this thing. Why is this the only site worth belonging to that I can't post pictures straight from my computer????

In reply to tr8todd:

I love the idea of a couple little panels/hood/deck front and rear and leaving it as is. Its SO cool to see all the aluminum and rivet work that went into it.

Imgur is easy and free too. Using external hosting keep server costs way down.