Hi Paul,
Curioser and curioser said Alice. Having the GT spec air filter would
have made sense for dry, dusty Australia. When I bought my S3 it was a
very un-original ST (it even had an S2 horn ring) that had been Solex
equipped (now Weber, with Lynx air filter). I believe somewhere in the
pile of mostly worn out parts that came with it was an old canister type
air filter, so maybe it too was originally delivered in GT spec. (The
original exhaust had been replaced with what looked like home-made
extractors, so no clue there.)
My original engine block is also stamped 'RRO', BUT the first 'R' is
clearly stamped over an 'H' indicating it was at sometime intended for the
British market.
The road test is from "Modern Motor" of February 1964 written by Brian
Hanrahan and quite clearly shows a S3 with Victorian registration plates
'HUX000'. I can send you a photocopy if you like.
Cheers
Paul Heuer wrote:
> 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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