welcome allegro owners

http://www.practicallyclassics.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=447

ssshhhh don't tell any one I am on here I own an Allegro as well sshhhhh

good see you " my other car a porsche" i read your post practically classics forum bet your dad can tell some stories about working Lucas , good see other people finding the allegro

yeah i used to go in with him from time to time. I would be dropped off either at the gate house and then called though to the production line when the coast was clear.. so one time I could be at Browns Lane Jag plant or the BL plant or Land Rover at Solihull. I used to think it was great H&S wouldn't let you do that now.. this was back in the 70's early 80's.

The old man has a load of stuff for the cars small bits here and there mainly Lucas stuff I will have to have a sort though what he has..
Also he was part of the team that made the talking Mestro Car..

He used to come home with Test cars also.. So some where real wacky things..

An Orange Morris Marina with the Montego Efi engine bodged to fit in the car.. Gafter tape all over the place with all the Lucas test guages every where.. he used to borrow them..

A ital with the Turbo engine in it.. I remember he came home with a beat up orange Estate ital I think it was.. this had the Turbo engine in it and they had really gone to town with the mods to see what they could get out of it.. ( eg they couldn't produce this engine it was more like a race engine ) and we were out side Solihull Land Rover gates at the lights a TR7 came up along side music blaring and my old man says watch this.. lights went green we were off ( F*** me ) we where off!! left this TR7 behind in the swerl of over rich fuel coming from the exhaust I looked back though the large square estate window to see this TR7 with it's nose in the air trying like buggery to catch up... NO CHANCE!!!!! he was totaly beaten by an ital Estate car.. little did he know it had an engine that had not even made it to production but it soon did

Also I remember a real clapped out Jag burgandy ready for the scrap yard it was and there was some Test engine in there a V20 or some thing.. it had small pistons and lots of them.. man this thing used to fly like a Le Mans car totaly rubbish on corners and brakes where not the best but the only man put his foot down and the world used to just rush by!!! I don't think that engine made it into production if it did then it was a race car cos no production car had that type of engine in it..you can't build cars like that now I don't know how they got them on the road then

i can remember the talking dash on the maestro often thought that they would keep talking after they went the scrappy like a christina moment or something but it was a very good idea at the time BL did alot of firsts

Chris goffey had the right idea with what to do to a maestro!
I digress. hello everyone, I'm entering the north cape run this coming summer and it turns out an allegro's never finished the event so the plan is to be the first.
I'm ex-ARG workshop training staff so theres loads of spares about the place such as uprated rally-spec bottles to help with the rough terrain over there and now all we gotta dos find a suitable car.
the charity is the ms society, mainly cos my brother has the condition and he gets loads of help from them so it would be good to put something back.
They also set us a more realistic budget than any other charity thats involved so we can spend a total of £400 on a car, the preparation work and any modifications we need to do but the l/c unleaded head will come from our own stock, as will those displacers so costs nowt for the essentials.
Now we just need to find a suitable car, has to be a 1100 or 1300 as the E's virtually unheard of over there but anyone anywhere in the world can keep an A going in the unlikely event that we break one engine and need work en route.
I'll ask on the allegro club forum too as they were mentioned on the new practically classic forum and have said they'll see what they can do but think of the publicity this board would get if it came to the rescue before the real allegro forum.

I'll be asking loads more about the various bits we don't have but may, depending on the state of the car we eventually use, need for the event.

See y'all later, H.

come on everyone there got to be an allegro out there to help this guy out. it helps this forum and it help publiclity the allegro under a good light

Well, thanks to the very kind member of the Allegro Club forum - who happened to be reading this board and got in touch - we now have our car sorted.
Engine was to be a 1275 A-series, but following someone giving us an early MG Maestro, we will stick with the 1500 E and use the head + twin sidedraughts from the R which is effectively the same engine so that's away having seat inserts fitted and the bottom end is being rebuilt and balanced, the plan is to end up with an engine that's roughly to the same sort of spec as the 1500 in Prince Michael's rally car from the early '70s.

We have a set of bottles that will be adjustable from inside via a dashboard lever and we've drilled and fitted the Schrader valve conversions to their gas chambers for this, this way, we can lower the ride height by dropping the fluid pressure first, then dropping the nitrogen pressure to suit. For this, we've adapted an old Dalek style pump to fit in the boot, its lever extended by Bowden cables for that dashboard mounting plan. The compressor for the gas side of the bottles will live in the dashboard and is simply one of those compact, twin cylinder ones designed for tyre maintenance but, as we only need adjust the gas pressure by a maximum of 12% either way to allow for suspension adjustments, it'll do the job without overheating. We hope!

So thanks again to Adrian and Francesca from the Club forum both for finding the ideal (solid shell and no previous repairs) car and for hooking us up with some sponsorship and a float for the day-to-day expenses, thanks for those go to a couple of the staff writers from one of the larger monthly car mags who happened to have a contact at Arriva. Yes, we have had to agree that the car will be painted in their turquoise and cream livery but that's a small price to give over for their level of support.

I know that members of the club forum read this so thanks again to them.

Congrats and the best of luck with it! This summer, me and a few mates will be charging across the north of europe, not sure what car it'll be in though. I'm having a look at early '90's British, for the charming fun of it. I'd be very interested to know how you get on!

good see the forum is working well good luck with the trip and do tell us here how you get on

Just wanted to say hello to everyone, Im Chris, im currently 15 and rebuilding a classic mini, but have always had a strong love for old british cars and none more so than the humble allegro!
I hope to be restoring one in the near future and will keep and eye out on the forum for tips and info
Is nice to see a dedicated and welcoming forum for once