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[VR4Dave]

TB - how do you copy parts of a previous post, so you can repond easily?

Agree with most of those points, especially the facelifts bit. I had 2 prefacelifts when before the facelifts came out and hated the facelift, but now I prefer the facelift in estate version but prefer the preface in saloon.
If I didn't need an estate I'd love a decent preface saloon.

[VR4Dave]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

[aaronjb]

TB - how do you copy parts of a previous post, so you can repond easily?

Click the 'Quote' button, then write whatever you want to write after the closing [ /quote ] bit.

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ahh my first car! Went to the great scrapyard in the sky after less than a year of me owning it (it was rotten, naturally, being a BL car!)

[VR4Dave]

TB - how do you copy parts of a previous post, so you can repond easily?

Click the 'Quote' button, then write whatever you want to write after the closing [ /quote ] bit.

Like that 

[TheBoy]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

[VR4Dave]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Bit before my time, but didn't they have leaf springs?

[TheBoy]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Bit before my time, but didn't they have leaf springs?

No idea, it was 5 years old when I got it, Anything ferrous had long since disappeared from it

[VR4Dave]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Bit before my time, but didn't they have leaf springs?

No idea, it was 5 years old when I got it, Anything ferrous had long since disappeared from it

So pretty much all that was left was brown vynl roof, beige velour and 4 cross ply tyres.   

[Kevin Wood]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Oh my Ital wasn't that bad!

..hang on.. are we talking about 1.3 or 1.7?

There's an Austin Maxi I pass on my way to work every day. Not tidy enough to be a collector's car but not a single bit of tin worm evident, and it is clearly still possible to select some of the gears, which was a tall order when they were new.

I just can't figure out how it's survived.  :-/

Kevin

[TheBoy]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Bit before my time, but didn't they have leaf springs?

No idea, it was 5 years old when I got it, Anything ferrous had long since disappeared from it

So pretty much all that was left was brown vynl roof, beige velour and 4 cross ply tyres.   

PVC seats

[aaronjb]

Speaking of old BL cars..

When I was over in Tokyo I saw two lovingly restored (or preserved) BL cars, one in the middle of being polished & waxed and another parked up near Toyko Tower.

One was a Riley Elf:


And the other an Austin Princess!


Didn't expect to find those so far from 'home'..

[TheBoy]

I can beat a square rover, recently saw an allegro! who would keep one of them going?

Ah crap, I forgot, they gave me an Ital once. I need to add that in my list of shite.  Fits in just below the Focus...

Oh my Ital wasn't that bad!

..hang on.. are we talking about 1.3 or 1.7?

There's an Austin Maxi I pass on my way to work every day. Not tidy enough to be a collector's car but not a single bit of tin worm evident, and it is clearly still possible to select some of the gears, which was a tall order when they were new.

I just can't figure out how it's survived.  :-/

Kevin

1.3, but had the sporty diff on it

[Kevin Wood]

Bit before my time, but didn't they have leaf springs?

Ohh, the joys of Ital suspension! You haven't lived until you've experienced it.

Really solid leaf springs and live axle at the rear with really solid shock absorbers. You could load the boot of my estate up with pi$$ed students and the ride height didn't alter one bit.

The front end was an abortion retrieved from the Morris Minor parts bin. Twin lever arm setup, the bottom of which attached to a longitudinal torsion bar which was some sort of excuse for not putting a proper spring in place. Bottom trunnions were a service item. Once every oil change, roughly. Top lever arm formed a crude shock absorber which was probably Ok when it was on a car 1/2 the weight but offered no noticeable damping.

They obviously thought about an anti-roll bar because there were holes where it should have been mounted but obviously they decided the handling wasn't dire enough with that fitted so the bean counters saved a few quid instead.

Tyres were 155/70 IIRC. 8-)

Result?

Horrendous levels of body roll. I gave up fitting mud flaps because I kept having to cut them down to stop them dragging on the ground going round corners.

If the body roll didn't warn you off and you pressed harder, dreadful understeer set in, which, with the application of a little power, snapped into oversteer (remember that hard rear end?) which the front end didn't have enough authority to control.

Had mine been a 1.3 it probably wouldn't have mattered, because to reach the heady speeds at which the above became apparent would have taken forever, but the 1.7 was actually quite sprightly in a straight line with about 85 BHP, IIRC. it just encouraged you to pile into corners at speeds at which the chassis didn't have a hope of doing anything other than causing you to void yourself in terror.

Notice how vividly I recall the above despite not having driven one since about 1993. Some scars never heal.

Kevin

[Kevin Wood]

PVC seats

Bloody good job, too. You could wipe them clean.

[TheBoy]

PVC seats

Bloody good job, too. You could wipe them clean.

Which I needed to on several occasions, including watching my front wheel beat me to a corner, and having the engine drop out.  Oh and a high speed rear blow-out which, as you rightly point out, the front couldn't do much to help.

In fairness, before it opened, I used to blast up and down the M40 in it for work (much to annoyance of the construction people), it was good for a ton...  ....but then mine was lightened, having 5yrs of tinworm...