For those interested in old cars.

[Rugd1022]

A couple of weeks ago I overtook a Herald very much like that one on the M6 near Fort Dunlop in Brum, it didn't half look vulnerable in the heavy traffic. Looked lovely though!

[PatB]

The hubcapless wide(r) steelies suggest it may not be entirely standard. I have something of a soft spot for Herald Q-cars :D.

 

They're not that vulnerable in modern traffic. With a healthy 1300 lump they can cruise above 70, the disc brake models can stop very smartly, and they're very agile, as long as you're not foolish enough to lift off (or, worse, brake) halfway round a bend. 

 

Crash protection is, of course, 1960s, so poor by modern standards, but I saw enough crashed ones in scrapyards when scavenging bits for small Triumphs (little victories? :)D) to be confident that they're not completely lethal either. 

[PhilJ W]

On 03/10/2019 at 10:22, great central said:

Tootling down Chip Pan Alley in Skegness this morning, must be something about the place, I put up a picture a few weeks ago of a mini pickup nearby

 

 

On 04/10/2019 at 06:18, chriswright03 said:

Learned to drive in one in 1970.

 

Wife's son in law has one and is putting a Subaru Impreza engine in it.  He is a very good spanner monkey and I have little doubt the end result will be quite special.. Wouldn't want to learn to drive in it though!

 

2 hours ago, chriswright03 said:

I appreciate I removed the picture from the quote and it did mention a mini pick up but the original picture was of an Imp and it was an Imp I was talking about.

I've thought about similar conversions to the Imp. What gearbox does he intend to use? I assume he's also putting the radiator up front.

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

A couple of weeks ago I overtook a Herald very much like that one on the M6 near Fort Dunlop in Brum, it didn't half look vulnerable in the heavy traffic. Looked lovely though!

When I first moved to this area over 20 years ago there was a Herald with an MOT for sale locally for about £600.  I had no car at the time and didn't really need one, but it's probably the vehicle I most regret not buying over the years.  Actually it's second; I could have had a drive-able grey Fergie for about £200 when I first passed my test.

[runs as required]

Talking of looking Vulnerable, yesterday I watched a dignified elderly man pilot an immaculate  black Reliant Robin silently into our local Co-op car park and insert it precisely in the one remaining tight parking place on a Saturday morning between overbearing SUVs.

dh

[stewartingram]

between overbearing SUVs.

Which, no doubt, had taken 5 shuffles to get into the empty spaces...forwards!

 

Stewart

[Jol Wilkinson]

58 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

between overbearing SUVs.

Which, no doubt, had taken 5 shuffles to get into the empty spaces...forwards!

 

Stewart

Around here in Suffolk they just park at an angle across two bays.

[Rugd1022]

In total contrast to that rather lovely Herald here's a jolly nice youtube clip with some jolly nice Lancias, a Bizzarrini 5300GT Strada, a Ferrari 250GTE and an Aston DB4 in a jolly nice workshop in Gloucestershire...

 

 

I was on a ballast job down at Willesden last night and with nowt much to do but stare out of the cab windows I watched it on my ipad five times!

Edited October 6, 2019 by Rugd1022

[steve1]

6 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

More likely the two blokes pushing from behind 

 

Having owned a Vitesse for 11 years I can assure you it only takes one. Usually me, with one foot out of the door onto a sloping road outside my house.

 

steve

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

 

Having owned a Vitesse for 11 years I can assure you it only takes one. Usually me, with one foot out of the door onto a sloping road outside my house.

 

steve

It must be the more aerodynamic bonnet shape.......or your weirdly over developed right leg 

Edited October 6, 2019 by boxbrownie

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

It must be the more aerodynamic bonnet shape.......or your weirdly over developed right leg 

Or the fact that the Vitesse has bigger, heavier engines.

[chriswright03]

18 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

 

I've thought about similar conversions to the Imp. What gearbox does he intend to use? I assume he's also putting the radiator up front.

Pass.

 

He has his own garage and is so buys with customer's cars that he hasn't done much to it yet.  I think it is a long term project as he used to have an Imp years ago that he did up but had to sell it to fund starting his own business.  Next time I speak to him I will ask.

[PatB]

I wouldn't be too surprised if the Soob gearbox were useable, at least for a mid-engine layout that sacrifices the back seats. Whether it would be reversible to allow an overhung engine, though, I'd be a bit doubtful. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, PatB said:

I wouldn't be too surprised if the Soob gearbox were useable, at least for a mid-engine layout that sacrifices the back seats. Whether it would be reversible to allow an overhung engine, though, I'd be a bit doubtful. 

It depends upon whether the diff is reversable. The Volkswagen transaxle was easy you just had to flip the diff over. It was not unknown for a beetle after gearbox work to have one very low forward gear and four evenly spaced reverse gears. This was because the VW vans had step down gears in the hubs to lower the gear ratio and raise the ground clearance, the driveshafts rotated backwards.

Edited October 7, 2019 by PhilJ W

[PatB]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It depends upon whether the diff is reversable. The Volkswagen transaxle was easy you just had to flip the diff over. It was not unknown for a beetle after gearbox work to have one very low forward gear and four evenly spaced reverse gears. This was because the VW vans had step down gears in the hubs to lower the gear ratio and raise the ground clearance, the driveshafts rotated backwards.

That's what I was thinking. I'm aware of the ease of reversing the VW transaxle, which allowed it to not only power the vans, but also mid-engine Formula Vee racers and any number of kit cars and specials. It's probably too much to hope that Subaru would build in such versatility if they didn't have to. 

[steve1]

10 hours ago, chriswright03 said:

Pass.

 

He has his own garage and is so buys with customer's cars that he hasn't done much to it yet.  I think it is a long term project as he used to have an Imp years ago that he did up but had to sell it to fund starting his own business.  Next time I speak to him I will ask.

 

It's funny in a way. 50 years ago I would have thought "What a great idea." Now I'm more inclined to think "Why mess about with a car like that?"

 

How we change with age...

 

steve

[PhilJ W]

I was offered an Imp Husky several years ago. The problem was the engine was shot. At the time I had a Bedford Rascal and I thought that the engine from that would fit a treat. The problem was with such a high reving engine a extra gear would be useful. The Rascal was basically a re-badged Suzuki Carry, indeed some of them left the Luton assembly plant badged as Suzuki's.

[alastairq]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

he Rascal was basically a re-badged Suzuki Carry, indeed some of them left the Luton assembly plant badged as Suzuki's.

I had a Soopercarrry as a personal wheelbarrow a while ago..what an excellent machine for pottering about in, doing the shopping, or loading up with 90-odd stone paving slabs?

Only got around 30 mpgs....low axle ratio, but revvy engine.

 

Not too far adrift with the idea of using a Suzuki..but the drive train wouldn't , as it's a''proper lorry'' underneath...

 

However, there was the Suzuki Whizzkid? this was rear engined, rear drive...which could[?] have done the job nicely?

 

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/twin-test-suzuki-ignis-vs-suzuki-whizzkid#1

[PhilJ W]

IIRC the Suzuki Whizzkid was a 'Kie' car limited to 360 cc, also it was only two cylinders. The engine from the Carry/Rascal was 970 cc and was configured in much the same way as the Imp engine, canted over to the right and of similar external dimensions. 

[Rugd1022]

Random small Italiana ahoy... . I've just ordered a book on Abarth on Amazon, the blurb on the back cover states that over a period of about twenty years, Carlo Abarth's little firm produced over two hundred different designs, astonishing really, I had no idea...

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Rugd1022

[MJI]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I was offered an Imp Husky several years ago. The problem was the engine was shot. At the time I had a Bedford Rascal and I thought that the engine from that would fit a treat. The problem was with such a high reving engine a extra gear would be useful. The Rascal was basically a re-badged Suzuki Carry, indeed some of them left the Luton assembly plant badged as Suzuki's.

 

Only driven the engine in a Sunbeam, that was very soon replaced with an ex Avenger 1.6, those engines were greatly underrated, sold the original engine to a trike bulder for what the 1.6 cost me.

[MJI]

2 hours ago, alastairq said:

I had a Soopercarrry as a personal wheelbarrow a while ago..what an excellent machine for pottering about in, doing the shopping, or loading up with 90-odd stone paving slabs?

Only got around 30 mpgs....low axle ratio, but revvy engine.

 

Not too far adrift with the idea of using a Suzuki..but the drive train wouldn't , as it's a''proper lorry'' underneath...

 

However, there was the Suzuki Whizzkid? this was rear engined, rear drive...which could[?] have done the job nicely?

 

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/twin-test-suzuki-ignis-vs-suzuki-whizzkid#1

 

 

Bedford rascal is the first (and only) 2 valve single cam Suzuki engine I have controlled, all other were 2 stroke or TSCC

[alastairq]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

IIRC the Suzuki Whizzkid was a 'Kie' car limited to 360 cc, also it was only two cylinders. The engine from the Carry/Rascal was 970 cc and was configured in much the same way as the Imp engine, canted over to the right and of similar external dimensions. 

It was......originally.... But not for the UK market. It received the 980cc 4 cylinder engine & 4 speed gearbox/ transaxle for us.  I nearly bought one in the 1970s,........I preferred their SJ 80 jeepy 4x4 in reality, but my then-wife thought otherwise. We ended up with neither.

[PatB]

That Abarth Multipla looks utterly terrifying. Still, I suppose when it crashed it was as likely to do so tail first as forwards :D.

 

I believe Abarth also did accessories for other makes. Dad reckoned he had an Abarth exhaust system on his NSU Prinz 30 in the early 60s, complete with pointless, but very impressive, 4 tailpipes. 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Random small Italiana ahoy... . I've just ordered a book on Abarth on Amazon, the blurb on the back cover states that over a period of about twenty years, Carlo Abarth's little firm produced over two hundred different designs, astonishing really, I had no idea...

 

 

Love the hot Multipla.

42 minutes ago, alastairq said:

It was......originally.... But not for the UK market. It received the 980cc 4 cylinder engine & 4 speed gearbox/ transaxle for us.  I nearly bought one in the 1970s,........I preferred their SJ 80 jeepy 4x4 in reality, but my then-wife thought otherwise. We ended up with neither.

I had the SJ10, same 970cc engine but even worse fuel consumption than the Rascal. Almost certainly due to it weighing one and a quarter tons and having the aerodynamics of a brick.