Complete Kit Car – September 2019

http://www.completekitcar.co.uk September 2019 57

Name: Drew Selvey

Age: 61

Occupation: Retired calibration engineer

First car: Austin A35

Lottery win car: Jaguar XJ13

Best tool in your garage: Fluke multimeter

Best bargain in the build: Callaway V8

engine

I BUILT THIS

ABOVE: Muscle

car motor suits the

wider stance of this

GCS.

LEFT: Team

Dynamics wheels

are larger than

those seen on other

Hawkes.

unit. Through his day job as a calibrations

engineer at Lucas and subsequently MG

Rover, Drew played an important role in

the development of the now famed engine’s

move from carburettor fuelling to fuel

injection. Having this connection meant

there was only one engine of choice for

the build, and it all began with a 4.0-litre

Range Rover EFI unit. Upon hearing of

another Hawke in the club that used a larger

4.6-litre unit, however, Drew decided to take

it up a notch – or two – with a Callaway

performance engine instead. For those who

don’t know, Callaway is an American tuning

company that is synonymous with the US

muscle car scene and most noted for building

supercar-quick Corvettes. At the time, in the

late ’90s, Callaway produced a limited run of

modified Range Rovers and Drew managed

to get his hands on the performance parts

needed to upgrade his subsequent 4.6 Rover

V8 to Callaway’s spec and beyond. I say

beyond because, while the American outfit

managed to extract 240bhp from the Rover

over on both entry and exit, the Healey was

once again more Drew’s creation than that

of its manufacturer. Satisfyingly, some of

that car and Drew’s first build, an Austin

A35 he owned from age fifteen, lives on in

the Hawke today – the Lenham lends its

indicators and brake lights and the A35 its

wing-mounted side lights. As both were

originally fitted to cars of a similar era to the

original design, the additions suit the Hawke

perfectly, as does surprisingly the much later

MG Maestro derived front splitter. Maybe

I’ve been desensitised to the changes, having

grown up during Morgan’s subsequent

resurgence in popularity following its

striking new millennium designs, such as the

steampunk-esque Aero 8, but I really like the

way Drew has injected some muscle into this

familiar shape.

The Hawke’s brawn is more than just skin

deep, however, and this one’s fitted with what

is arguably the most iconic British sports car

engine of all time, the Rover V8. But, Drew

being Drew, this isn’t your typical Rover

“ITS TWIN CHERRY BOMB

SILENCERS, GENER ATE A

TERRIFIC GROWL”

And what a V8!

054 GCS Hawke.indd 57 31/07/2019 3:15 pm