He bought a £500 rot box abandoned project from a friend, which had been stripped to a shell and left in the garage for five years. It had no engine, gearbox, interior or glass but did come with a set of brand-new wings, something that's about as easy to get hold of as the Pope's mobile number. Graham collected the car, and I use the word in the loosest sense, on a trailer and stuffed all the parts inside the rusty shell. As the only original bits remaining are the roof, the boot floor, chassis rails, front panel, rear bumper and windscreen wipers I think you can guess that it was no overnight resto. In fact, it took the best part of four years with Graham doing most of it himself. "I didn't realise how long it would take to sort the body," he admits. If he ever has to weld again it will be too soon. Avenue Panels supplied most of the missing parts, though the bonnet and the oot are fibreglass, to save wieght. He spent £800 on a Custom Cage and then £300 paying Richard at Prepfab Motorsport (01777 228004) to fit it. By then he' done more welding than any sane man could take.

The cage itself it welded to all the suspension ponts, so the rear turrets are both fully braced for rigidity. He then decided to paint the car himself in Citroen Saxo Mango. It's the first car he's painted but he likes a challenge. The two-pack paint only cost £150 (plus £280 for the compressor), all the extra cost for the spay job goes into the labour. OK, so it took him a couple of months, but what the hell.

Graham had already fitted a similar engine into his Westfield - used for sprints and hillclimbs - and knew the engine was successful in rally Escorts and had few weaknesses. He found a rolled GTE at a scrapyard and paid £150 for the useful bit under the bonnet. "The bits I needed to reuse like the crank, block, head and valves were OK, but the block needed a rebore. The pistons and cams were worn but I planned to replace them anyway," he explains. SBD Motorsport (0208391 0121), known for tuning Vauxhalls suppled advice and the parts he needed. "Doing this transplant is involved and you need to start with a shell because to get the new engine to fit, you have to take 2 inches out of the bulkhead. I like the challenge of fabricating my own engine mounts and transmission tunnel," reveals Graham. You could buy a kit, but that would be too easy.

It took him a couple of months to put the engine together and fit it. "Obviously, building an engine, you have to keep everything clean and be methodical and take your time," he says. The car is still being run in but it should be good for 235 bhp once it's ready to be used in anger. Despite restricting himself to only 5000 rpm for the first 1000 miles, Graham is very impressed wth torque that the new engine is producing.It's still fitted with standard rods so he's currently limited to 8000 rpm. He could change the rods and add solid followers to get 250 bhp but that's going to whack up the costs and at the moment he can't justify the extra money.

Talking of money, Graham would rather not, especially when I ask what the conversion has cost him. "When you build it over a long period it's not as painful as buying an entire unit at the same time, as you tend not to add up all the individual receipts." Anyway, he claims he's saved around £1000 in labour alone by puting the enigne together himself.

The engine feeds a Ford Sierra, Type-9 five-speed gearbox fitted with Quafe internals and connected up with an adaptor kit which made it all straightforward. However, while Graham is confident that the gearbox can cope with the power, he thinks the wark like in the set-up might be the half-shafts. To deduce tha trisk, he'll stick with standard wheels in the hope they will break traction before he breaks a shaft - fingered crossed.

The wheels are the ones that came in the spares box when he bought the car, although they were tatty so have shot-blasted, powder-coated and painted black - matching Mango wheels were thought to have been a bit much. The 13 inch RS wheel are prevented from turning by the Princess four-pot callipers on the front, combined with 285mm cross-drilled discs from Rally Design. Escort Cosworth callipers and MkII Escort discs take care of the rear, plus the car is fitted with an in-car adjustable brake bias.

Obviously it has been built for competition, sprints, hillclimbs and tarmac rallying. For the latter he'll need a co-driver and despite winning every of his hillclimb championship so far this season, he's yet to convice a willing victim tosit alongise him. Grahm says that half the fun is building it and the other half is driving. If he could just get to compete on Mull then he'd die happy.

Front: Adjustable Bilstein dampers, anti-roll bar, Rose-jointed adjustable TCAs.

Rear: AVO adjustables, five-linked rear axle, upprated bushes.

Modified pedal box, twin-master cylinders, adjustable brake bias.

Front: Princess four-pot callipers, 285mm cross-drilled vented discs, Pagid ceramic brake pads

Rear: Cosworth rear calliper, hydraulic handbrake, MkII Escort discs, Pagid RS14 ceramic brake pads.