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Things to do to British/Lucas equipped cars:

- Replace the early fabric covered wiring with American made HD gauge aircraft spec wiring (before it starts smoking and shorting out on your way to an important event) - first in the dash - then the rest of the wiring.

- Install a Bendix electric backup fuel pump in the rear near the gas tank using Areoquip hd flex tubing and put a steel blank-off on the engine block where any standard fuel pump was.

Install two (2) electric radiator cooling fans in front of the radiator (toggle switches on the dash for both fans) and remove and standard cooling fan (but put it in a spare/emergency parts box in the boot)

Install a second 12V battery in the trunk with remote on-off switch on the dashboard. Never get caught with a dead battery in a snowstorm.

Rotate the tachometer to have the Redline point straight up where it should have been in the first place.

When the aluminum block in your vintage 50s AC Bristol spins the crankshaft bearings take it to a busy tractor & truck repair shop on the Old Dixie Highway in Old Pompano Florida and swap in a low-mileage Chevy smallblock V8 4V engine (a SW 400ci with the 2 small steam holes drilled in the 350ci or 307ci heads - You must then use 400ci head gaskets] on each 350ci cylinder head [much less volume in the cylinder heads] and or 307ci heads [smaller valves and much less volume in the cylinder heads] for even more compression and torque) with a 3-speed transmission (You will not ever need 1st gear anyway as wheelspin will be fantastic - John Schultz did this in 1960 - 2 years before Carroll Shelby saw it and had to use smallblock Ford V8s - 260ci the 289ci - See GOOGLE) a beefed-up 2-speed aluminum Powerglide would be better as it has a reliable record and is very popular on drag racing tracks and dirt tracks and lets you relax at stoplights on a graded hill and as you zip by unsuspecting BMWs and ‘Vettes and Vipers and Porsches.

Chevy V6 High-Lift rocker arms will do without swapping the hydraulic camshaft - Keep it quiet with larger diameter exhaust pipes (do not install custom tube headers - noisy, too much heat on the hood, they rust, you will not need the extra horsepower) but no loud mufflers.

A Chevy V8 with a 600cfm or 780cfo Holley 4V is easy to slap together to produce 400-500-600hp streetable horsepower with barrels of useable torque.

Why a Powerglide? They only shift once - Also an early aluminum 2-speed B-O-P transmission with dual-range varible pitch torque converter [with modified TC fin angles] with a B-O-P autu trans front pump and valve body can be easily fitted and actuated with a dashboard or steering wheel mounted switch.

Why do Ferrari and Aston Martin and Maserati and Lamborghini and Porsche now use paddle-shifters with semi-autos?