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Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:33 pm
by rich.
we have red squirrels around here....
meanwhile
http://www.lesanciennes.com/annonce/A12 ... cat=autres
is the red car an alfa montreal?

Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:09 pm
by JPB

Good spot! Yes, it certainly looks like a Montreal to me. Alfa fact: That very car was on the one card I kept when I binned my old boxes of Top Tr*mps. I'm sure its numbers weren't all that, but there's just something really special about an Alfa.
Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:20 pm
by Grumpy Northener
but there's just something really special about an Alfa.
I have to agree with JPB, after all 10,000 RAC & AA mechanics cannot be wrong
But this is my idea of a proper Alfa
Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 8:57 am
by GHT
Grumpy Northener wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:20 pmI have to agree with JPB, after all 10,000 RAC & AA mechanics cannot be wrong
Seriously? You agree with John after he all but got his rocks off over a, I feel faint saying this, a Leyland Sherpa? He needs to get some therapy.
JPB wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:32 amTell you what, how about we squirrel the seller of the replica Carlsson and leave the owner of the
(vastly superior) Sherpa to file his other replies..
Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:24 am
by rich.
GHT wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 8:57 am
Grumpy Northener wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:20 pmI have to agree with JPB, after all 10,000 RAC & AA mechanics cannot be wrong
Seriously? You agree with John after he all but got his rocks off over a, I feel faint saying this, a Leyland Sherpa? He needs to get some therapy.
JPB wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:32 amTell you what, how about we squirrel the seller of the replica Carlsson and leave the owner of the
(vastly superior) Sherpa to file his other replies..
someone got an extra dose of happy pills this morning

Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:07 am
by JPB
Someone did, but we don't know who as quotes still aren't working.
GHT, you know you want that Sherpa

as much as I do, perhaps you're pretending not to want it so that I won't know I have competition for the thing? It makes sense, an updated MGB with sleeping accommodation and no need for lead substitute. Ideal gas conversion, especially as a 90 litre tank will go under the floor in otherwise wasted space. Imagine that; a Sherpa with a range of over 1000 miles on both fuels. Eco friendly MG motoring at its best. Looking at the listing, I would imagine that the poor bloke may by now be regretting his invitation to squirrel him. 432 squirrels and rising! I like this fella, he's totally hatstand.
"Madness, madness, we call it madness. Buy a Sekonda, it'll fill you with sadness, etc."

Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 3:56 pm
by GHT
Let me get this right, MGB motoring, in a camper van? Would that be because of the 1798cc engine? Or maybe because the engine was known as the 'B' series. Don't forget, The Sherpa also had a 1622cc engine, a power unit that dated back to the early fifties, good grief, any earlier and it would probably been a sidevalve unit.
There really is a lot of nonsense around when it comes to BL's offerings. Look at this advert:
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C805393 The vendor describes it in the second line of the advert as, absolutely stunning, maybe because he whacked his head on the wing mirror and stunned himself.
I can remember hippy flower power, they always seemed to be living in Sherpa vans,
Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:19 pm
by JPB
No B-series for that Sherpa, it's newer so benefits from the aluminium headed O series, hence my impure thoughts about gas. OK, so the crankcase / block casting is derived from B series leftovers, but the O is, if it's possible for such a thing to exist, an even lovelier engine than the B.
The flowers would have to come off if I owned that stunning coachbuilt Sherpa as I'd want to travel incognito and it's otherwise such a subtle vehicle in which to meet like minded camper enthusiasts at the
special car park, up in the woods.
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Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:52 pm
by Grumpy Northener
Oi GHT what's wrong with a Sherpa - great little vans - I had one for 60k miles paid £1200 for it and sold it after the said 60k miles for the same amount - never had to spend any money on it other than servicing and a set of tyres - In the case of the camper how much value for money is that - has the same thing wearing a blue oval badge would be twice that money and has for the overrated, overpriced 3 star badged stuff from Germany don't get me started - there is one thing sure those horse blinkers that you constantly wear along with the grumpy pills obviously work

Re: breakdown truck
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 10:34 pm
by GHT
Grumpy Northener wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:52 pm
Oi GHT what's wrong with a Sherpa - great little vans -
Little, Chris, you've got it in one. They are a rehashed J4, please don't say that you like the Morris J4, in fact, if you look at the rear of both vans you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But it's that word little, that Chris said, that counts. The van was designed to be car width so that they could make use of the existing track to build it on. When a motoring journalist picked up on the narrow size, it spawned the biggest, and I have to reluctantly admit, the best ever piece of: "Thinking on your feet Bullshine."
"We designed it like that to give it access around the narrow streets of many of our cities."
The Sherpa is as ugly as ugly gets, it runs on an antiquated engine, it's nothing more than a rehashed J4.
My working life in distribution started in the 1970's where I was a junior manager with The Great London Council. We must have had at least 50 Sherpa vans, of which, a quarter or so, would always be in the workshop for one thing or another. The line manager to whom I reported summed it best when, in a moment of exasperation, declared: "Did the Romans leave these bloody things behind?"