Hi Vic,
My car is a S3 ST - but it was delivered new in Australia - as far as I
can determine. It is very original, and has been looked over by the
second owner who said that's how it was when he owned it.
The interesting part is that although it says 'RRO' on the ID plate and
has a soft-top, black dash and black steering wheel (you neglected to
mention the luuverly wooden steering wheel on the S3GT), it had the
canister air cleaner, the WIP (GT-spec) twin Zenith carbs, and the
non-extractor exhaust. It did not have any under-bonnet (hood)
sound-deadener, but it has been resprayed, so maybe the deadener was
lost then. If you read through the Rootes parts list it notes the
canister air cleaner, and GT parts as also being for 'some export
markets' or something related to dusty climates. I don't have the book
handy so I'm using a very unreliable organic reference manual ;-) - The
point there being that the reason for GT-spec induction on Aussie cars
is probably related to dust ingestion rather than noise reduction.
Sooooo, my point is that it would be strange for all pre-solex GT's to
be delivered to Australia with ST running gear, if my ST was delivered
with GT running gear!
There is a photo of my engine bay as it was when I bought the car at:
www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4081/alpine/my_alpine.html
The rest of the air cleaner canister did come with the car, but I
suspect the DPO couldn't find a paper filter for it, so bodged the
after-market cleaner onto the ducting. I've changed over to WIA carbs
and gravel strainer air cleaners, and intend to fit headers if I can
find a nice set of them (any offers?).
One of the 'vintaged' club members told me that new Alpines were
sometimes imported by dealers themselves (ie outside the normal
Rootes-Australia supply of Hillmans and Humbers), so that might explain
why Dealer A ordered one spec of Alpine and Dealer B ordered something
else.
Anyway, if you get any solid information, please do share. I pondered
over my car for a while trying to determine what was original. BTW -
which Australian road test are you referring to? Good luck with the
search.
Cheers,
Paul.
9203022 S3 ST/GT hybrid
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