Tom Gardner wrote:
Martin Gregorie wrote in news:kg50u4-
:

I'd never knock the series II or III. Mine did a London-India out and
return in 10 months without any problems apart from a tendency to
consume speedometers that I never got to the bottom of, a clutch change
in Mysore and a clutch slave cylinder replacement in Turkey.

I had a series II with a 4litre perkins diesel engine.
Yes, it would pull the skin off custard, and yes the
engine mountings and transmission spiders were problematical.

Mine had the trad. 4 cyl 2.25 litre petrol engine and it would happily
pull skin off custard, but slowly. However, the engine mountings and
transmission were plenty strong enough for that small donk.

The standard diesel was a dog (a diesel version of the four potter,
gutless and noisy). The other standard engine, the 2.6 litre petrol
straight six was also bad news. It was all revs and no torque and very
thirsty with it.

However, when we hit Asia I did rather wish I had the diesel because
that was never more than half the price of petrol from the Bosphorus
east and at that time [1] in Iran it was 1/5 the price of petrol. I had
at least fitted an electronic ignition that moved the beast up from 16
mpg to 18 mpg.

Mine seemed to have a lot of parts in common with Minis,
e.g. rear lights and driver's seat.

Mine was the 10-12 seat wagon version with up-market seating for five. I
don't recall any Mini parts but it was a long time ago.

[1] 1977/78 when the ******* Shah and his nasty Savak were still there.


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