Allegro Equipe

[Balmoral]

E series then became the R series in the Maestro for a year, to be replaced with the S series. From famine to feast.

[Scotty2]

Anyone got a 1750TC Engine and box for sale? Need one for my Maxi. One on e-bay but too far and pricey.

ETA: I nearly bought an Equipe but it was sold on the morning I was due to visit. Got a 1500 HL instead.

Edited by Scotty2 on Tuesday 29th January 09:19

[iSore]

Balmoral said:

E series then became the R series in the Maestro for a year, to be replaced with the S series. From famine to feast.

Mr Ambassador, you are spoiling us..............

They were O Series, not a bad engine as they go.

[Gojira]

Eeek...

The engine mounting on the clutch cover of that Maxi lump reminds me of taking out the clutch from a scrapyard Maxi to go into the 1500 that was my first car back in 1982 - three cars up in the pile at the scrapyard!

Definitely interesting, trying to find something to take the weight of the motor when wedged on the bonnet of the car underneath...

Kids today, don't know they're born, mutter, mutter

[roverlandsteve]

hi all I worked at a BLdealer in the 80s my mate had an equipe as a company car came from the factory with very un straight stripes we fitted about 3 sets to get it near perfect, I don't think the allegro was that bad as a 1500 or 1750 same can be said of the princess both drove quite well had the usual quality issues.
which let them down.

[LarsG]

Managed to convince my dad to buy a Cortina and not the Allegro.

[singlecoil]

roverlandsteve said:

hi all I worked at a BLdealer in the 80s my mate had an equipe as a company car came from the factory with very un straight stripes we fitted about 3 sets to get it near perfect, I don't think the allegro was that bad as a 1500 or 1750 same can be said of the princess both drove quite well had the usual quality issues.
which let them down.

Excellent lurking Steve, one post in just over eleven years. Perhaps we'll see you more often now?

[Mikebentley]

I would like to add my name to the list of Allegro likers. I started driving in 1984 and they were of their time. Most of the front wheel drive Austin’s were extremely comfortable and pleasant to drive compared to everything else out there. Austin’s badge engineering and attempts to get “market” through limited editions was no different to others of the time. My mate had a Marina Coupe TC, it was hilarious and no worse than any of the fords of the time.

[Piersman2]

Another fan here.

Back in the early to mid eighties we were selling old st heap cars bought from Aberdeen auction for a couple of hundred quid a pop, so had our fair share of truly dreadful cars come through, Allegros being quite common at the time. Two stick out in my mind, an Equipe which we sold to a friend who managed to rag it to death/crash it within two weeks, and my very first car which was a sky blue metallic 1500 HL which I loved (it was my first car! ), until someone who had come to look at some of the other cars made me an ofer for it I couldn't refuse - £350!

The Equipe was good fun to drive with the 1850 TC engine, but my word the rust was getting a damn good hold on it even then.

Christ we had some dreadful cars come through from the auctions back then, they don't make cars like that anymore!

[sunbeam alpine]

About a year and a half ago I was in the UK looking after my mum after a hip operation. I spent a lot of time bored and surfing the net. A lovely Allegro Equipe came up on Ebay - I bid on it (planning on parking it in one of the outbuildings and using it when I was visiting) - but I got outbid at the last minute.

I was curious how it would compare with (IMHO) the definitive 1750 - my Alfa 1750 GTV.

[welsh blackbird]

Gojira said:

Eeek...

The engine mounting on the clutch cover of that Maxi lump reminds me of taking out the clutch from a scrapyard Maxi to go into the 1500 that was my first car back in 1982 - three cars up in the pile at the scrapyard!

Definitely interesting, trying to find something to take the weight of the motor when wedged on the bonnet of the car underneath...

Kids today, don't know they're born, mutter, mutter

I once changed the clutch three times on a Maxi, only to discover that the reason that there was no drive was because the splines had worn off the drive shaft. bd thing.

[Balmoral]

iSore said:

Balmoral said:

E series then became the R series in the Maestro for a year, to be replaced with the S series. From famine to feast.

Mr Ambassador, you are spoiling us..............

They were O Series, not a bad engine as they go.

2.0 Maestro/Montego had O series, both stepper and Lucas injected. Ambassador had 1.7 or 2.0 carb O series. The 1.5/1.75 E became the 1.6 R, replaced with new 1.6S. But E/R/S had no connection to O.

Geektastic

[eccles]

welsh blackbird said:

Gojira said:

Eeek...

The engine mounting on the clutch cover of that Maxi lump reminds me of taking out the clutch from a scrapyard Maxi to go into the 1500 that was my first car back in 1982 - three cars up in the pile at the scrapyard!

Definitely interesting, trying to find something to take the weight of the motor when wedged on the bonnet of the car underneath...

Kids today, don't know they're born, mutter, mutter

I once changed the clutch three times on a Maxi, only to discover that the reason that there was no drive was because the splines had worn off the drive shaft. bd thing.

It's amazing how people forget these days about the annual ritual of getting the car through the MOT. We had 3 Maxis through the 70's and 80's, and every year you had to change the 'aeroplane mounts' on the front suspension, the engine steady shaped like a shock absorber was another regular.

Great cars, and quite underappreciated. I can still remember being impressed by the acres of floor in the front compared to most of the rear wheel drive cars of the time with their gearbox tunnel in the way!

[iSore]

Mikebentley said:

I would like to add my name to the list of Allegro likers. I started driving in 1984 and they were of their time. Most of the front wheel drive Austin’s were extremely comfortable and pleasant to drive compared to everything else out there.

Everything? Really?

The Citroen GS and Alfa Sud were both leap years ahead of the Allegro in every respect, as was the Golf. And the Fiat 128. And the Datsun 100A Cherry. And the original Honda Accord hatchback.
The problem with the Allegro was that its was no better (often worse) than the 1100/1300 its replaced, the build quality and reliability was an utter disgrace on the earlier ones and the public just didn't want to know. It's amusing to see one on the road but really, they were absolute crap. When the Equipe arrived, VW had been making the Golf GTI for three years.....

At least the Maxi was useful.

[A1VDY]

Also had an Allegro, a 1500HL back in circa 1989/92, white with black vinyl roof and being Ziebarted from new was absolutely rust free. I think i only paid £200 for it and did me proud as a work car for three years. It never failed to start and got back what i paid for it/ Never a styling excercise but was certainly not the worst car i ever owned..

[2xChevrons]

iSore said:

They had the 1750 HL Maxi engine with twin SU's - 1.5 inch HIF's iirc. The E Series was a real old cement mixer, long stroke and very small bored crammed together - that was BL wanted the six cylinder version (2200) to fit under the bonnet of a Landcrab 1800. They hated high revs and if driven with verve, would be shagged after 30'000 miles.

Compare that to a 1500 Golf that would runs rings around it, or a 1500 Alfasud that would sit at 100 mph for hours on end. Issigonis designed a cracking little 9X OHC engine as well as the alloy head OHC A Series (84 bhp from 1275 cc) , and BL turned out st like the E Series instead.

Everything you say about the E-Series and the 9X engine is true. But it should be pointed out that Issigonis designed the E-Series as well and the long stroke/coupled bore arrangement, and the continuation of the dead-end gearbox-in-sump arrangement, were all because he was high on his own supply and insistant on getting a transverse straight-six into the Landcrab (he did a six-pot version of the 9X unit as well) because in his own mind the long-dead fad for small-capacity non-sporting sixes (a uniquely British quirk generated by the minutiae of the RAC Horsepower Tax formula) was the way of the future.

iSore said:

Everything? Really?

The Citroen GS and Alfa Sud were both leap years ahead of the Allegro in every respect, as was the Golf. And the Fiat 128. And the Datsun 100A Cherry. And the original Honda Accord hatchback.

All those cars are better all-rounders than the Allegro but not in 'every respect'. The GS was gutless, noisy and over-complicated. The 'Sud was probably the only mass-produced Western European car to have worse average build quality than the Allegro. The Golf is a damp grey flannel of a car dynamically in standard form with completely wooden handling, terrible brakes, numb steering and a ride that is badly under-sprung and under-damped. The Fiat had its own quality, reliability and longevity issues. The Datsun rivalled the Allegro for the wooden spoon styling award, was by far more rust-prone and was only available with weedy little engines. The Honda was beautifully engineered and a pleasure to drive but also lacked conventional style and any thought of rust protection.

The Allegro was not so far adrift of its contemporaries as the myth would have it, especially in Allegro 2 form and onward. It's certainly a massive leap forward from the RWD members of its class (Escort/Chevette/Marina).The ride quality is superb (especially later once they mastered the damping rates in the Hydragas units) and it rivals the GS for ride quality and roadholding/stability. The steering is like a grown-up Mini - accurate, linear, lots of grip, geared just right. The styling is a mess and the execution of the design was absolutely dire in terms of quality and reliability. The A-Series engine was just about acceptable and the E-Series was horrible. Most damningly of all, it's not really as good in the round as the ADO16 it supposedly replaced. But it's not a car without redeeming qualities and it was not utterly trounced by its rivals. The contemporary road tests bear that out.

[rallycross]

Balmoral said:

Urban myth has it that the alloys were porous, having had one on a used car pitch with seemingly permanently flat tyres, I would concur.

I remember that, those mutli spokes always had flat tyres if not used, as per above!

And VW in the 90's did a very similar wheel for the Mk3 Golf and Scirocco mk2 and they were the same, they always lost air when parked on sale and not used (they always corroded really quickly compared to other Golf alloys of the day). something like these ones.

[Piersman2]

2xChevrons said:

The Allegro was not so far adrift of its contemporaries as the myth would have it, especially in Allegro 2 form and onward. It's certainly a massive leap forward from the RWD members of its class (Escort/Chevette/Marina).The ride quality is superb (especially later once they mastered the damping rates in the Hydragas units) and it rivals the GS for ride quality and roadholding/stability. The steering is like a grown-up Mini - accurate, linear, lots of grip, geared just right. The styling is a mess and the execution of the design was absolutely dire in terms of quality and reliability. The A-Series engine was just about acceptable and the E-Series was horrible. Most damningly of all, it's not really as good in the round as the ADO16 it supposedly replaced. But it's not a car without redeeming qualities and it was not utterly trounced by its rivals. The contemporary road tests bear that out.

I watched an old episode of May's Cars of the People last night where he did a 10 minute segment on the Allegro and the various contributions to the downfall of the British car industry. He had the original designer on the show to explain what happened. Apparently the basic design was mainly compromised by the need to raise the bonnet line to fit in an off-the-parts-shelf heater as BL decided it was too expensive to design and build a new heater which would have allowed the original design to be produced. Not the only issue obviously, the decision to NOT build it as a hatch-back also helped to limit it's appeal against the Golf's, etc... of the time.

Anyways, the interview ended with May offering the designer a lift in May's Allegro, which was gently refused by the designer!

Much of what you've said above it true, I had several of the other cars around the same time. My Honda Accord ('S' reg, beige) was dynamically brillant and felt like a space ship compared to what I driven before it, but the bodywork and chassis members were largely a lace like remnant of the original metal held together by paint and it drank oil. My brother had an Alfa Sud where the front end just fell off one day. It's no surprise that every little village back then had a garage which would weld for pennies!

[neutral 3]

I was unfortunately an apprentice mechanic, at a Dire BL Main Agents W.J. Wells of Woodford from mid 77 to November 1980 and worked on and pdi checked Many All Aggros. We sold Loads of the things.
One day, the pot bellied two faced fireman, marched into the workshop with a memo, which stated that " under no circumstances were we to Jack the Allegro up ( from memory under the B or C post ?? ) as the shells were distorting and the doors would then not shut lol.
Another Vivid Allegro memory is of one of the mechanics using a socket on a long power bar on a hub, with his foot, the bar snapped and it shot up about 15 feet in the air, hit the workshop roof, bounced back down with a huge clang, fortuneately missing the other cars in the w shop !
Well remember the Equip model.
The Allegro was popular with old dears and older couples, many of whom had owned the Austin / Morris 1100 / 1300 model before. But they preferred the earlier car. The Allegros lack of a rear hatch was a disasterous decision.

Edited by neutral 3 on Thursday 31st January 12:03

[wag2]

There was a trend in those days of BL for new models to be worse than the ones they replaced. Biggest tragedies were rubber bumpers on MGs and the TR7.

I remember standing in the workshop of a main Jaguar dealer and watching a man touch up the paint around the door closure of a brand new XJ6.

Some of the management’s decisions were dire. They discontinued the Mini Cooper (because of a small royalty). Look what BMW have done with it.