SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Was it not the (5-dr) Horizon which was the sawn-off (4-dr) Avenger, not the (3-dr) Sunbeam?
Bit like the Landcrab/Maxi.
No, the Horizon was a development of the Simca 1100.
Horizon = Simca 1100 Sunbeam = Avenger Samba = Peugeot 104
(I think)
Ian Dalziel ( snipped-for-privacy@lineone.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
That one's definitely true - at least, the SWB 104ZS.
Nope, not even a little bit. The Sunbeam was a quick-and-dirty effort to get a hatch on the market, using the rear-drive underpinnings of the Avenger with a new, squared off and opening-back-window (not a true hatch) body on the old floorpan. The Horizon was the floG, an attempt to clone the VW Golf using bits from the Simca 1100. It ended up larger, heavier and clumsier than Golves of the time because it had to appeal to the USian market as well. The Horizon was FWD and used Simca bits, the Sunbeam RWD and Rootes bits.
Dead right, except the Horizon engine range was topped with the big-bore version of the Simca lump out of the Alpine and the Sunbeam started its engine range with an (over) stretched version of the Imp engine. IIRC the Samba had a more convoluted history than being simply a 104-clone, combining the wheelbase of the standard 104 with a shell derived from the SWB ZS. There may have been some Citroen (Visa and LN) input too. Both of them were 104-derived, but I guess I'l trying to say that the Samba was the result of some extensive squiffling about n thew PSA parts bin..
Andrew Robert Breen ( snipped-for-privacy@aber.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Don't you go blaming Citroen for the LN and the Wheezer...
The LN was a case of "Let's replace the Ami *now*. No, NOW!" after the takeover by PSA - take one unsuspecting 104ZS, lob a 2cv engine and GS box in it, some Dyane headlights on it, and a pair of chevrons.
The Wheezer was a cobble-together on the 104 pan after the Citroen design (which became the Oltcit/Citroen Axel) for a slightly-more-conventional sub-GS model was canned. The Axel used the G engine and box with torsion bars, although it did donate the styling for the Wheezer with a couple more doors slapped in.
The message from Grimly Curmudgeon contains these words:
That wasn't exactly a stock engine. The big valve engines only claimed
126 bhp at 6500 rpm (and were probably a good bit less) and if IIRC the BRM variant that preceded the factory big valves was only 130 bhp at something like 7000 or 7500 rpm.We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) saying something like:
Aaaaaaaaaaaarrgghhhhhhh!
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.