Hi,
I own a 1966 1725 Sunbeam Alpine in British Racing Green. The car is in
Ok/good general order but is a little tatty. I am now starting the long
process of making this daily driver drive as good as it looks (and
hopefully a bit better :-) The engine drives very well after a rescent
rebuild - a leaky radiator caused the engine to overheat and blow the
gasket (it is definately worth getting a new core for your radiator, which
I found out to my cost, it also looks good in the engine bay.) Rescently I
was driving to work from Cambridge to Oxford (yes it's mad) which my Alpine
normally does with ease ! I heard a horrible scraping noise from the rear
drivers side wheel, which sounded like the brakes. I pulled to side of the
road and pulled the handbrake up...and up...and up...until it finally just
wouldn't go any further, without braking at all ! It turned out the cable
had snapped, in a pretty impresive way. So I sent it to the garage to have
my brakes and cable done. While doing the brakes I got them to check why it
was sitting low on the front drivers side wheel, and I borrowed a car to
come to work in and the exhaust fell off this morining just outside
Silverstone ! It turned out that my coil had actually snapped and had been
for some time ! Luckily it was right near the top of the spring and was
(almost) safe. I have never really been happy with the front (and sometimes
rear) of the car. The front can get very 'marshmallowy' at times and then
dig in around roundabout and throw the end out (especially in the wet)
which it did very spectacually once, with luckily no damage (I don't know
how.) So I want to upgrade the suspension and have more rubber touching th
floor with new wheels. This is where I need some advice, I think it would
be greatly improved (and corner more like my old herald) with lower,
stiffer springs and dampers and maybe an anti roll bar.
Has anyone else doen this sort of upgrade ?
Can you recommend parts and/or suppliers ?
What wheel and tyre combinations fit the car best ?
The springs at the rear have been replaced recently but before I bought the
car can these be lowered easily and does this have much improvement on
handling ?
Cheers,
Jamie
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