Classic emails, letters, tweets, posts & threads
Get out there and use it!
My wife and I own a 1965 Sunbeam Alpine that we bought in 1983. We use her as much as we can, all year round, regardless of the weather simply because riding in her makes us feel good. Writing this email in February, in the heart of winter the temperature is -0.3° outside. In the week 27.1.23- 4.2.23 we drove 1047 miles in the car travelling from Kent to Dorset twice as well as from Kent to Cambridge and all the usual local journeys. Today we did another 92 miles going to a breakfast meet, tomorrow we'll cover about 80 miles meeting friends for lunch on the Sussex border. I'd like to encourage people to use their cars more. Parking them in the garage all winter is only likely to lead to seized clutches and brakes, perished hoses and stale petrol come the spring. Also, parts suppliers rely on our cars using consumable spares, if you don’t use them, they will simply stop stocking and supplying them.
The Letter of the Month writer gets 250 voucher with rhspecialistinsurance.co.uk Tel:0333 043 3911 Vochers can only be used to insure a classic car owned by the writer of the Letter.
ZEPHYR MKIV: AN INSIDER’S VIEW
In the Sixties, I was employed as a Development Engineer by Ford Motor Company, working on the MkIV Zephyr/Zodiac range, amongst others. I was thus very interested in James Walshe's great buying guide in the March edition of PC. A few early complaints of the MkIV’s handling in the wet were linked to one supplier of the 13in crossply tyres fitted. This was eliminated initially by different rubber and improved again by the a change to 14in radial tyres. These changes, together with the power steering (PAS) system, which I was involved in, made the cars even better to handle. During development our suppliers mentioned we should check high fluid temperatures at high engine speed with hard cornering. We tested at Boreham Proving Ground and hired a Super Snipe, and a Princess ‘R’.
All were driven flat out round the circuit until steering temperatures stabilised. When we returned the vehicles to the hiring companies, we had difficulty explaining why they had only done 200 miles, but all their tyres were completely bald!
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Alpine for me. Mine will soon b
