CLASSIC INJECTION
It’s not easy modifying an Anglia the ‘right’ way, but Neil McCarty’s got the balance spot-on with his latest hot Crossflow-powered build.
It always happens. You build yourself a lovely car and someone wants it more than you do. Which is the dilemma Neil McCarty found himself in when he’d finished — and to be fair — driven the bolts off his gorgeous grey Zetec Anglia. Someone wanted the car that much that when Neil said a stupid price to put him off and the bloke said sold, he’d found he’d kind of shot himself in the foot. “Oh well, better find another one, then…”
Now, Neil’s well known for his exploits with 105Speed — his business dedicated to improving the Anglia breed and keeping them on the road. Plus he’s associated with Milton — the go-to source for virtually anything modified Anglia with the strong ethos of not altering the shell beyond absolutely having to. With these links, it’s fair to say there’s more than a touch of Milton in the Anglia you see before you — but then we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Milton spirit
“The late Kevin Wood of Milton had a huge influence on me, always encouraging me with 105Speed,” says Neil. “He always used to say ‘What’s right is right and just because two things bolt together doesn’t make it right’. His approach was always based around simplicity and elegance, less is more, and although the car is not a tribute to Kevin, there is an awful lot of his influence in the build”
So Neil had a dilemma: being Mr 105Speed, it’s natural he’s going to want — no, need — another Anglia and with his contacts, you’d think the process would be dead easy. But Neil’s grey 105E was a superb car — never welded and excellent all round. Another of the same was the only route — although he wasn’t setting out to completely replicate it. “I don’t want to stick to a formula, I like to try different things — in the past we’ve fitted Toyota 4AGE engines as well as more traditional powerplants, while the grey car had a Zetec, which was great but I needed to try another route.” First though he needed a car…
“You really have to look very hard if you want the right one — everyone says their car’s mint and unmolested but when you get to the nitty gritty, they usually are far from it,” he reckons.
After loads of blind alleys, this one came up via a guy in Kent known simply as John Mex. Now John was thinning out his collection with the aim to concentrate on his Escort rather than the Anglia he also had — despite it being completed to a painted, rolling shell stage — and it was easy for Neil to see what he was getting.
Now to find somewhere to build it — always a tricky one when you haven’t got your own garage. But Northampton Motorsport (NMS, with whom Neil has strong links) did. A bit of arm twisting to Troy Robinson, with some
‘It’ll only take a couple of-months’, persuasion and he was allocated a corner of the NMS workshop. We’re not really sure Troy would have completely agreed to it if he’d have known it would take six years — yes, you read that, six years! Finally, after a good kicking from Troy, Neil took 9 months out to build the car. “Business was quiet and I decided to just take the time to put the car together, develop some new products of the back of it and finally get it out from under NMS’s feet”
The thing is, Neil’s a fussy bugger and it had to be right, which meant virtually new-old stock everything. The car came with loads of parts but none of which were really good enough to match the standard Neil was after. Plus he had the added complication of finding the absolute correct stuff for the car. “The interior’s switch stock and associated bits are black, which is the later colour the 105E came in. Really common’s grey and I could find acres of that, but mine was meant to be black and finding that in excellent shape is no easy task.”
Understandably, that lot took time and dedication to source, thankfully though lots of the other stuff you need in addition is now reproduced by some excellent suppliers, so the door cards and headlining, carpets and other complimenting bits that add up to an excellent car, were relatively easy in-comparison.
But it’s the traditional theme that’s spread throughout Neil’s build. Yes, it’s adorned with Milton stuff to make it handle, and as a tribute to Kevin Wood, Neil chose the route of early Koni-based suspension that Kevin pioneered such a long time ago. In fact, in the very early
days of the classic Ford scene, Kev was there in his Maidstone workshop quietly beavering away, developing the complete suspension system many 105E owners now take for granted.
Crossflow capers
We said it’s traditional because, as you can see, that’s a Crossflow firmly planted in the engine bay. But not any old Crossflow. Yes it’s built with the traditional ported head and lightened and balanced bottom end, but the twist is that fuel-injection system that brings it bang up-to-date. The bare bones came via another enthusiast selling off his stock of mainly race parts, which Neil bought in-conjunction with someone else, who was interested in the race car. The Crossflow was in Neil’s side of the bargain, and a good one it turned out to be… even weirder it had been built a few years earlier by a chap called Chris who was a member of the old 105Speed forum and a helicopter engineer in the RAF, so the build was spot-on.
Initially, the idea was to keep it simple to get the build done quickly, so it went straight in but the single downdraught carb and dizzy just
“THE TRADITIONAL MODIFIED THEME RUNS THROUGHOUT THIS BUILD, BUT THAT’S NOT ANY OLD ENGINE...”
didn’t quite fit the bill, which gave way to a pair of sidedraughts.
“What I really wanted was old-meets-new, which came via a set of Jenvey throttle bodies offered to me by Chris at NMS. They were installed on the Crossflow but they hit the bulkhead, which prompted me to commission Pro Alloy to make up a bespoke upswept, offset inlet manifold so it wouldn’t.” That is now a 105Speed product and that’s how it works with Neil’s company — he needs a part to solve a problem and that then becomes part of the 105Speed inventory. A great way to know bits work and fit; because he’s tested them on his car — and if you look, the rest of the engine bay is littered with 105speed stuff, including the discreet catch tank and screen wash tank utilising the old heater vent holes and that gorgeous set of exhaust manifold primaries in the old Mass Racing style!
“I love driving the car and it has to be reliable. The Anglia Lakes Tour is a massive part of my calendar — 750 miles where the car has to be comfortable and easy to drive. Just getting there has to be pleasurable; you really don’t want a car that drones all the way there and all the way back; so much that you want to kill it as soon as you can!
“The throttle bodies have made the Crossflow really driveable — there’s no pumping of the throttle to make it start, you just turn the key and the cold start map does its part until the car’s up to temperature, it behaves in traffic and returns a decent MPG on a run – it’s just a joy to drive. Old meets new — and that’s the way I wanted it…”