Bill:
Something you may have missed is that the overall winner of the "Around
The World in 80 Days" rally ( London to Beijing, Anchorage to New York,
Marrakech to London) was driving a 68 Hillman Hunter with essentially
the same drive train as your Alpine. (Also, previous World Cup rallies
from London to Sydney and London to Peking have also been won by teams
using the Hillman Hunter.)
Almost all repairs were were done in the evening, by the driver and
wife team, and most repairs were minor (a rear wheel-bearing in Buffalo
was, I believe the most serious). When I asked the winner (in Banff)
about his choice of car, he stressed good handling and ruggedness and
reliability were his major criteria. He also said that other than
standard rally mods (skid plates etc.,) the only mod to the engine was
to the cam (better low end torque). Everything else was simply put in
excellent condition, even the Lucas electrics and Stromberg carbs!
Since these people travelled some very primitive roads in all sorts of
weather and did time trials almost daily, you may be under-rating your car!
Ron Tebo
Barbara Blue wrote:
>
> My wife and I have a Series V in need of a major redo. We have recently
> decided we would like to use the car for rather extended touring when we
> retire in a few years. I am concerned about two issues: excessive revs for
> long trips and a breakdown 30 miles south of East Bumfuk, Nowhere. I have
> about decided to install a Ford rear axle to drop revs. I have no faith in
> the Lucas system, so it would be replaced as much as possible. Is there
> anything that should be done to the engine to dependablility? What would the
> list of recommened spare parts be? Would we be better off to replace the
> entire drivetrain with something we could repair anyplace? We are thinking of
> trips 1000-1500 miles away from home.
> Bill
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