YOUR CARS
1989 Skoda Estelle 120L5 Mick Rayner, Lincolnshire
What have we here then?
‘It’s a 1989 Skoda Estelle that I bought two years ago after the previous owner passed away. It had only done 16,000 miles when I bought it off the back of a recovery truck outside my mate’s garage, but it had been off the road since 1998. Body-wise, what you see today is how it was when I bought it, with the odd scrape and dent here and there, and a replacement rear quarter after it was written off in the Nineties, but generally it was solid and sound. I got the standard 1172cc lump running soon after picking it up and was surprised to find after not much tinkering that all the electrics other than one fog light worked without much trouble. I ran it for a year with the standard engine, swapping one head gasket in that time, but with this and a Cavalier MkI I had alongside it, I fancied something a bit quicker, so set about upgrading the Skoda with a K-series engine.’
A K-series? Tell me more…
‘This isn’t the first Estelle to receive such an upgrade, there are about half a dozen that had already been converted before I did mine, so the adaptor plates, flywheel spacers and, crucially, plenty of advice was already available. The K-series I sourced is a 1.8 from a 1996 MGF that had already had the MLS (multi-layer-steel) head gasket conversion done before I bought it, and bolts to the original Estelle gearbox in much the same layout as a VW Beetle, with the engine mounted behind the gearbox amid swing axle rear suspension. None of the Estelle’s body had to be cut or modified for the conversion, which was a real key to the project for me, while the rear crossmember that takes the weight and torque of the engine simply bolts into the rear chassis legs.’
What other mods have you done?
‘It runs bike carbs from a Yamaha RR6 on a custom manifold made to my specification, including neatly routing the servo take-off at the bottom out of sight for a clean looking e
