Jeez, Russell, you know how to get a bloke into a sweat!
Can I use this in the next Hillmanews?
Regards,
Ron Beckett
Editor, Hillman Owners Club of Australia Newsletter
'71 Hillman Hunter Royal 660 (See pix at
http://www.brigadoon.com/~craigb/hillman/hunter.html
'67 Hillman Gazelle
'87 Range Rover (car trailer tow vehicle)
----------
From: Russell Maddock
To: hillmans; alpines
Subject: Re: Of Humbers That Might Have Been
Date: Sunday, 16 February 1997 2:46PM
.....reminded me of a letter I wrote to Rootes Club Nederland's editor
after he sent me some copies of his newsletter:
"The article on Isuzu Motors in the last issue served to jog my memory. A
couple of years ago I was at an historic race meeting where an Isuzu Bellet
coupe had been very impressive. It was competing in the historic saloon
category and was proving to be well matched against the Mini Coopers and
Ford Cortinas.
The driver came over to see me at the Sunbeam tent and asked me to look
under the bonnet of his Isuzu. To my surprise there was a Hillman OHV
motor nestling in the engine bay. I knew that Isuzu built Minxes under
license but always thought that was the full extent of cooperation.
Apparently when Japanese Minx production ended and Isuzu introduced their
own models, they based their engine on the unit from the Minx. I was told
that the engine was virtually the same apart from being metricated.
Apparently Bellet owners often use Rootes gaskets since Isuzu ones are hard
to come by.
The driver also claimed that the Bellet coupe was based on the Sunbeam
Alpine floorpan.
Unfortunately there doesn t appear to have been much written on early
Isuzus so I have not been able to research this subject further. The story
doesn t end here though.
After he was done showing me his racing car, he took me over to his road
going Bellet. He lifted the bonnet and I was startled to see a twin cam
engine underneath. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a twin cam
head on the venerable Minx/Alpine block! It seems that Isuzu continued to
develop the engine after Rootes money had run out and this was the result.
In theory the twin cam should easily bolt straight into the engine bay of
any Audax or Arrow variant. Hmmm, a twin cam Alpine. Now that sounds nice."
As an afterthought, it probably wouldn't go into an Arrow car so easily
since the engine didn't cant over when Isuzu first took up the design.
Russell Maddock
1963 Sunbeam Alpine GT
1969 Sunbeam Imp Sport
1978 Chrysler-Simca Alpine GLS
1983 Peugeot 505 STi
Editor - Sunbeam OC of Queensland
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:34:16 CDT