Engine

1) Front view of the Quattroporte engine after revising the accessory mounts to narrow everything before drawing the chassis on paper (no CAD here but the old way works too). This engine should make over 300 HP for now with some cam timing changes and a much more efficient exhaust system. Plans for a significant power increase are in place. Right now I just want to get this thing running. I'm retaining the power steering pump (tired of "arm-strong steering") and left the air pump optional. For now I'm using the awful OEM style poly-belts which make snapping noises when cold, due to the "memory" of the material. The noise goes away as the belts warm up but it's annoying. When I finally supercharge this thing, all these pulleys and V-belts will have to be replaced with a multi-ribbed serpentine belt and pulleys and that should kill two birds with one stone.

2) Top view of Quattroporte engine with the Tremec 5 speed hanging off the back. The stainless braided hoses poking out of the bell-housing are for the hydraulic clutch release bearing. One reason for picking the Tremec TR - 3550 was the two extra optional shifter locations. It came stock with a rear mounted shifter but either of the two gold colored covers can be taken off to relocate the shifter forward. This was very desirable since I wanted to move the engine far back in the chassis. It's basically a front-mid-engine design and at the moment I have almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution front to rear.

3) Side view of the engine. That is the original (but modified) right exhaust header mounted on the left side. That allowed the engine to slide back further in the chassis and still leave room for a driver and passenger. The rest of the primary pipes were cut off and a flange welded in place. The parts that were cut off were replaced by a "nest of snakes" style bundle of primary pipes, on each side of the car, which wrap around the foot-wells. By varying the lower primary pipe lengths to compensate for the un-even length original primaries, the end result was, true equal length headers with 31" primaries. A lot of manufacturers claim they make "equal length" headers but if you actually measure them you'll often find significant differences in primary pipe length. The Tremec 5 speed is hanging off of the customized bell housing.