BL rubbish and other assorted crap

At which point the bottom swivels snapped and the wheels splayed out?

Just a guess.

Steve

Sounds like it needed some decent tyres. Like all BL front wheel drive cars, the handling was pretty good in its day. Sure you're not confusing it with a Marina?

Simca 1000/1100 is the most crap car I ever drove.

Took my first 3 driving lessons in one. Then I told the instructor what he could go do with it. I thought the dealer had fitted 2 clutch springs, I had to take a big grip of the wheel to operate it otherwise I wound up with my head wedged on the roof.

Far too many left. You will be able to spot owners the same way you spot Velocette owners by their overdeveloped right leg, Simca owners will have overdeveloped left legs.

I've driven a AFS Bedford SP and they have a lighter clutch.

"1000/1100"? Erm... Which end was the engine at?

the Simca van I drove in the 70s was an 1100 fwd, the engines were incredibly noisy, but they were also quite fast, especially compared to the English stuff of the time.

Obviously never driven a 3 series Volvo with the CVT gearbox. Thank Ghod it was only a loaner.

I drove one and changed the belts on it without the set of special tools.

Don't think you need to be replying to my post, then. ;-)

Front. c1978. I only met the poxy thing 3 times and never got nor wanted to get acquainted with any other of the firms product. It wasn't anywhere on the list of Desirable cars.

While the Honda Civic 5 speed that my 3rd driving instructor had was a joy to zip up and down the gears. Can't remember what her boyfriend had, he was my 2nd driving instructor. He died "on the job" from a heart attack, not in a car. She collected his students.

Was the 1000 like a Hillman Imp? Rip off or the template?

I rather liked the 1100. Cornered on rails.

Never drove a 1000 - the bigger engined one was the 1300. Like an Imp in that the engine was at the back, not much more as far as I know. Both produced (the Simca first) quite a while before the companies were related.

It was the same engine as the Talbot Horizon, and very similar to the Chrysler Alpine. I don't remember the clutch being heavy.

It might have been good in its day, but it was a 1974 M-plate, this was

It was fun though: we had a bit of fun keeping pace with an XR3 at one point. I'm not sure how hard he was trying, but an Allegro accelerating at that pace was a surprise.

It's a sign of an inherent desire to meet another lunatic, since no-one else would preserve something that normally would have run-out of metal a few years after having been 'built'. Actually most Allegros ended their days following the failure of some front suspension part. You couldn't go more than a mile without spotting one abandoned at the roadside, with one front wheel collapsed into the arch.

Ours was blue, well mostly. It went rather better after I rebuilt the top end at 12000 miles old & pointed out to Charlie Browns that they'd fitted a different sized tyre to the left hand front wheel compared with the right.