Vintage Thing No.23.2 - Austin Allegro
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| My Allegro 1.3 Super in its element - summer time in the Cornish lanes |
Just over a year ago I chap called Steven (sorry, I don't know your second name) got in touch about my thoughts on the Austin Allegro. It seems I'm not the only one who thinks a fast one would be a Good Idea and a bit of a joke.
His remarks were so encouraging I thought I'd share them.
"Read your
blog on the Allegro Equipe and felt compelled to
write.
"Like you,
I've been looking for the Allegro SuperVroom TV ad. A crummy ad for a crummy
car, what with its wobbly Hydragas suspension, floppy body-shell, square
steering wheel, lumpen looks, and gutless, under-square
engines.
"Except that,
like you, I can't help feeling that there was a decent car in the Aggro
struggling to get out.
"The first
inkling I had of this was when Rover finally developed the car’s Hydragas
suspension system as it always should have been developed – for the K-series
engined Rover Metro in 1990. That was considered to be the world’s best handling
and riding small car back in the day, and the system was further refined for the
“backwards Metro”, the MGF in 1995. Now, I owned an F for eight years and it was
a revelation. I drive an Elise now, which is quick but skittish in comparison to
the F which had supernatural levels of grip and composure (although it has to be
said Rover ruined it by the fitment of electric power steering – I removed the
fuse.)
"I
met Dr Moulton as one of a party of Internet geeks a few years ago and it seems
that the Allegro was conceived originally with a front subframe but that
the item was dropped during development on grounds of cost.
"Now,
the omission of the front subframe probably did nothing to help the Allegro’s
structural rigidity – popularly supposed to be about the same as an empty box of
Corn Flakes.
"Even
so, the Allegro does not appear to have been any worse than its competitors with
its torsional rigidity being about 6000lb ft per degree of deflection which was
usefully higher than the Mk1 Ford Fiesta (about 4700 lb ft), the Renault 5 (3500
lb ft) and the VW Golf (5200 lb ft.) Of course, they were all hatchbacks so you
could expect that, I suppose, but even so the Allegro’s floppy body-shell seems
to be just another myth. Compared with the notably stiff ADO16 and ADO14 it must
have been disappointing but those cars were exceptional.
"You
have to wonder how much stiffer the Aggro would have been with a front subframe,
given that the Mini derives much of its front end rigidity from the fitment of
such an item. And the omission of a front subframe, according to Dr Moulton,
precluded the employment of anti-dive front suspension geometry, one development
which made the K-engined Metro so good. Dr M said a subframe-less anti-dive Allegro
would have generated horrendous road noise.
"Later Hydragas developments included an active anti-roll system, and
fluid filled engine mountings connected to the suspension.
"If
you wanted to create a tidy-handling, smooth-riding Allegro, I suspect that it’s
not beyond the wit of man. And Dr Moulton is around to give advice.
"But
how to make the 1750cc E-series unit go hard?
"Owned a Mini a while back and toyed with the idea of an E-series
installation, but the consensus of opinion in Mini circles is that the engine is
a boat anchor, a right old dog that’s not very tuneable.
"I
suspect this is a load of cobblers.
"Downton Engineering managed to coax 105bhp out of it:
"But
Downton’s Daniel Richmond (who had a hand in designing the engine) was never one
for tuning for outright power, anyway, so I’m guessing it shouldn’t be too eke
out a few more ponies, as this post from an internet forum suggests:
' “Downton did pretty much the entire
development work for the later twin carb/tubular manifold 1750cc engines, many
of their modified bits were sold as Special Tuning parts around late '73 onwards
and eventually ended up being copied for production vehicles. Autocar tested a
1975 1750cc Allegro HL and found a 10 second dead 0-60 time,
impressive with just 95bhp on tap and more so given it being a four door only
model (the Equipe was the only twin carb 1750 Allegro sold in 2 door
form).
“The 1750 works
rally Allegro (made famous by Vangaurds model), has a
160bhp+ E series, bored out using Fiat pistons to around 2 litres. Oil
consumption is catastrophic, so is fuel consumption as it uses a fat Weber DCOE
carb.
“Oh yes, all on a standard gearbox
too.
“Going slightly less extreme, there is a
nice Equipe in the club which has around 130bhp on tap, obtained from a good
porting and three angle valve grind of the cylinder head, fast road cam, a
'tweaking' of the carbs and a bloody good rolling road
test.”'
Which leaves the notchy gearshift:
'“You should be able to get it shift nicely
if you got some poly bushes cobbled together and a decent fitter to properly
align the rods.”'
"Which leaves the car’s styling. Best of luck with
that.
"But don’t shed a tear for the loss of the Allegro coupe. Not if the
picture in David Knowles’ book, “MG: The Untold Story” is anything to go by.
Imagine an Aggro with twin circular head-lights, quarter bumpers, a big square
grille extending into the area between the quarter bumpers and a humpbacked
C-pillar. It really is a
monstrosity.
"Intriguingly, Knowles relates that BL toyed with the idea of a 2.2 litre
six-cylinder E6 engined Allegro..."
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| My Allegro is now under cover for the winter. The roller painted Rustoleum paint is lasting well. The car still rusts but more quietly. At least the sound doesn't keep me awake at night |
To which I replied:-
"I have the remains of a four door 1750 Aggro with a
crumpled roof and am still wondering what to do with it. To scrap it as many of
my mates suggest seems a waste to me, although it is very rusty. I've acquired a
number of spare parts along the way an although I have a number of other more
pressing projects I would like to do concentrate on the good qualities of
Allegro-ness and make a special out of what I've got. I still think Andy
Saunders was on to something when he created the All-ego. I had a similar idea
years ago, maybe even before had his, but mine was to weld up the doors and
create more of a speeder than a convertible. I am not sure I would keep the
Hydragas suspension. I know front units are very scarce and the rear end of this
bodyshell is extremely rotten. If I do proceed with this idea I think I'll
probably adopt and Mini-style beam axle. I remember hearing about a front coil
spring conversion on a Brazilian Allegro years ago. My 1750 is dry stored and
the engine still turns over so it'll await its turn.
"I was very interested in Alec Moulton's story about
the lack of a front subframe. It seems this could have been the biggest design
mistake (apart from the syling). A Pininfarina styled ADO16 successor was what
should've happened and in a parallel universe probably has. I also own a Citroen
GSA and the two cars make a fascinating comparison. With the active anti-roll
and anti-dive developments of Hydragas, the alternative Allegro would have done
all that the GS and later GSA would have done apart from raising itself on its
suspension. And the Allegro would have had a much bigger engine with the
E-series motor, while the GSA always felt underpowered in hilly
terrian.
"105 bhp (or 130 as sounds possible) in a stripped
out Aggi sounds fun to me provided the gearbox can take it. I think 160bhp is
pushing it too far. I always thought the 1750 unit was so undersquare because
the cylinder entres were so close together. According to Jeff Daniels in
British Leyland : the truth about the cars Harry Webster could only
stretch the capacity of the 1485cc E series by increasing the stroke so I
frankly doubt if overboring for a Fiat piston was really possible.
"Which brings me neatly back to your closing comment
- the intriguing plan to kit an Allegro out with a 6 pot motor. Would this fit
the standard shell? I reckon it could be made to fit by altering the inner wings
but that would have added to the production cost.
"Occasionally I look at the 2.7 litre KV6 engine and
wonder what sort of a sleeper a two door Allegro would make when fitted with one
of these."
And that's as far as either of us have got with these subversive ideas of fast Allegros.
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