Discussion
A 390SE initially owned by Simon Cox, consultant surgeon of Rickmansworth.
I just received a reprint of a road test of it and a Tuscan (TOD 238 J) from Classic and Sportscar magazine, April 1985. It must be one of the early ones with trailing arm suspension. In the photographs it's black with tan (biscuit?) interior, with arm-rests, full-length veneer where the glove-box is on later models and "button" type door (lock) pins. Under the bonnet it has red rocker covers with a pin-striped (in red) plenum chamber. The oil filter looks to be mounted higher up than on later 390s. Wheels are the framework ("Momo" - IIRC) type.
Anyone here own that now and want a scan of the four page article?
Streaky
I just received a reprint of a road test of it and a Tuscan (TOD 238 J) from Classic and Sportscar magazine, April 1985. It must be one of the early ones with trailing arm suspension. In the photographs it's black with tan (biscuit?) interior, with arm-rests, full-length veneer where the glove-box is on later models and "button" type door (lock) pins. Under the bonnet it has red rocker covers with a pin-striped (in red) plenum chamber. The oil filter looks to be mounted higher up than on later 390s. Wheels are the framework ("Momo" - IIRC) type.
Anyone here own that now and want a scan of the four page article?
Streaky
Rus Wood said:
I would imagine that it is trailing arm. They were still knocking out trailing arm 390s in October 85.
I think the wheels were originally "MSW" and were probably body coloured centre which flaked off and were replaced under warranty.
Russ
I wonder how long it took for the mod to work its way onto the production line? Obviously there were chassis in production when Chris Schirle modded my car (Spring/Summer 1985). The car must have been produced between Sept '84 and Dec '84 as mine was the first produced in 1985 ("VIN" plate dates as Feb '85).
Report had car aged 1,500 miles and test must have been conducted early '85 (or late '84) - the trees are bare of leaves - so any flaking must have been an almost immediate problem.
The wheels in the picture are those shown in the Bible on page 209, top right photograph. The Parts Manual describes this type as "Momo" and lists them as available in "silver" and "gold"; but also indicates that these wheels were fitted up to DH5430FI (Jan '83), so "shouldn't be on a 390SE from late '84. Of course, Tiv buyers could specify the wheels they wanted and the factory would also use whatever they could lay their hands on. Mine (Feb '85) is "correct" and has the B.H.S Alloy wheels fitted to 280s, 350s and 390s from Jan '83.
As ever, nothing about Tivs is straightforward!
Streaky
adam quantrill said:
Drip feeding us - I was more interested in the words, are there more words to come? Because what there is doesn't really talk about the wedge.
Apologies Adam - not on purpose ! for some reason I dont seem to have the rest of the article -it was downloaded from elsewhere so unfortunately I dont have the original ... Ive just been going over the old stuff I had collated when I was researching early 390's so when I get a minute I will create a separate thread on here to post all the things I have ...
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