Slightly OT: Pinzgauer Sales Video

On or around Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:39:19 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

Accompanying a friend on a journey to fetch a hillman imp, recently - when as half-expected it broke down, we phoned the RAC:

"what car is it?" "a hillman imp" "wots one of them, then?" " it's a fookin' car, yer wally."

I suggested telling them that we'd looked under the bonnet but couldn't find the engine.

Ohh you are a wag!

Yes, the suspension and drivetrain is a tad odd, but built for reliability. Instead of trailing links, A-frames, drive shafts with UJs and all that kerfuffle, the pinz suspension and drivetrain has one socking great big joint for each half-axle that pivots around the differential itself. The drive shafts go directly into the differential housing and have a large crown wheel on the end, this meshes with pinions that are on torque tubes centred on the drive shaft, so the drive shaft pinions change their meshing angle as the half-axles move up and down. In this way, there are no other joints on the suspension. No trailing arms, no A-frame, no bushes, no panhard rods, no nothing, just a big beefy pivot around the diff, some springs, a shock absorber and an axle check strap to stop Triumph Spitfire-like tuck-under. Very neat but doesn't do much for your camber angles!

A question I've come to dread when calling places up.. I usually say "Defender 110" these days.

|| "what car is it?" || "a hillman imp" || "wots one of them, then?" || " it's a fookin' car, yer wally." || || I suggested telling them that we'd looked under the bonnet but || couldn't find the engine.

Remember that Candid Camera stunt back in the 60s? They took the engine out of a (thinks) Ford Anglia and rolled it down a hill into a petrol station forecourt, then asked the guy to check the oil.

How we did larff.

If there's one vee-hickle that could push a series 1 80" off my purchase list, it's a haflinger. They only do 40MPH on the roads though. If fuel mileage is good enough it could be justifiable for most of my driving, which is 10-mile local trips on small roads.

I'm not listening! :p

Poooortal aaaaxlessss..... Diiiiif looooocksssss..... Foooorward controoool..... Thirteee fooor inch tyressss.... Threeee thousand poundssssss.....

Oops, sorry, I appear to have become evil!

Fancy an apple?

TWENTY FOUR HORSEPOWER :p

No this is the Volvo C303 I'm tempting people with now, it's got about the same as a 300TDi IIRC.... Just checking on;

125BHP engine, 165 ft/lbs which I think is lower torque than a stock 300TDi, can't quite remember. It's a carburetted petrol so probably lower torque than the 300TDi.

So no, it's the pinz that runs on clockwork, not the C303 ;-)

Scarlet painted, Omnibusssssssss. All to gether now....

When cabbies try to pass me, before they overtakes, I sticks me flippin' 'and out and jams on all me brakes!

Then jackal taxi drivers can only swear and cuss Behind that monarch of the road, Observer of the Highway Code, That big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined

97-horsepower omnibus

|| On 2006-06-28, GbH wrote: || ||| Scarlet painted, Omnibusssssssss. ||| All to gether now.... || || When cabbies try to pass me, before they overtakes, I sticks me || flippin' 'and out and jams on all me brakes! || || -- || Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!

Hold very tight please ...

Ching ching!

On or around Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:30:49 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

there are sod-all for sale on ebay. nor 'mogs, (well, about 2, highly priced).

Item number 4650653799 in "completed items" went for £3,000 just 8 days ago, I saw a 6x6 in supposedly good condition for £2,500 on there just as I was about to buy the pinz. Almost made me stall.

The prices are high-ish though.

On or around Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:24:51 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

[pinzporn]

here's some more. I expect this bloke is not the cheapest around though.

mind, the site could do with more or better details. I've emailed 'em about it :-)

He sells at the standard price of £10,000 inc vat for a Swiss 712M, but he'll quote you higher, that's as low as he can go once haggling starts.

I've been dealing with Haflinger Technik, Dale is a nice chap and very enthusiastic, the business is run more on a hobby-gone-too-far basis, he's happy to ship you a selection of parts and will invoice when you ship back the ones you don't need, at least that's what he's done for me so far. Lots of useful advice too, he talked me through the initial stages of my rear light conversion for example.

His website's s**te though ;-)

Also he's in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Continental Utility Vehicles aren't as helpful in my experience, they've promised me a few things that they never delivered (including a price list for insurance valuation purposes) but they have more development on the go, e.g. hard tops, diesel conversions, LPG conversions, much of which appears to have been done by friends of theirs that they then put you in contact with directly. They have people in Sheffield and Harrogate.

apart from the portal axles it could be a 101!