An add-on air conditioner was initially offered as an option on the 1959 Series
III Hillman Minx and teh Series II Rapier. They were available through about
1963 that I know of (and possibly later). Installed price was about $300 back
in 1959 (a lot of money when compared to a $1,900 car!). Since the Minx/Rapier
used the same engine as the Alpine (essentially), all of the mounting hardware
should work. The only problem was that the Minx/Rapier unit was mounted in the
trunk and blew in from the rear deck. Possibly a redesign or a later model was
totally under the dash. Or maybe the Series IV was a GT model with the unit
mounted in unused convertible top well. I do have a Rootes sales brochure for
the air conditioner, a Hillman ad for an air conditioned Minx and a road test
of an air conditioned Minx.
Jan
Ian Spencer <ian@sunbeamalpine.org> wrote:
> Has anyone (Ed) ever seen the Coolaire air conditioning unit made forthe
>Sunbeam Alpine in the early '60's. This unit hangs from the dash
similar to the factory radio assembly and really has a factory look to
it. Very "cool" if you ask me. :-)
The reason I ask is because I just acquired one of these units this
weekend. It is complete with the installation manual and shows it
installed in a Series IV Automatic!
I scanned a picture from the install manual that shows what this thing
looks like. You can find it at
http://www.sunbeamalpine.org/air/air_cond.jpg I'm vey excited to have
stumbled across this little gem nd I'm interested to learn more about
it. - Ian
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