So having read my post about One For The Road, and having watched said show for yourselves, now is the time for y’all to pick the dream sports car of your youth to retrace the steps of Clarkson, May and Hammond as they drove across Zimbabwe.
As I pointed out in the post, these were the cars they chose:
Hammond: Ford Capri
May: Triumph Stag
Clarkson: Lancia Monte Carlo
…and highly interesting choices they were, too.
My choice is this:
1967 Austin Healey 3000 MkIII BJ8, 2.9-liter inline 6:
My only “modifications” would be:
- to get it in its original right-hand drive configuration, as Zimbabwe (like all ex-Empire countries) drives on the left-hand side of the road
- to replace the twin carburetors with the Lucas mechanical fuel injection system
- and to fit a modern aluminum (aluminium?) radiator in place of its original (and inadequate) British leak-bucket. I’d be driving in Africa, not Britain.
The more I look at the Healey, the more it makes my loins twitch and causes parts of me to move in an outward direction. I have also had the privilege of having been driven in one many times as a boy, because my mother once owned like the one above, and she took me to and from primary school every day for about a year. What a beautiful car it was, and what an experience withal.
And in Comments, your choice, with reasons.
In keeping to the same era I’d choose a 68 to 70 911S . As for modifications I’d raise the suspension, and add skid plates and rally lights as all the factory Rally cars of the period used. Also, when I lived in Colorado in the 70’s ) we used a fairly simple modification for running a 911 at speed at altitude in the mountains and across the High desert plateau in Utah. A 5 gallon plastic bag filled with water in the front. Then a windshield washer pump and long tube to a spray nozzle in front of the engine fan. It worked ell to rapidly drop the engine temp.
As for reasons, I’ll just point to the long list of successful Rally 911’s including the 1984 Dakar overall win.
Two other comments on the episode 66 pence for silver is 86 cents US and current spot price for silver is ~ $ 1.02 a gram so they did get a really good deal on their raw silver purchase ( assuming it was reasonably pure which might be a bit a stretch. ) And in an amazing trick of sand casting at thier campsite James was able to cast a highly polished steering wheel. And Richards engineering OOpsie for the rail car conversion is an error no 1st year engineering student would make. The simple fix is the just add another gear to the gear train to make the rotation correct. But then it all part of the fun if you don’t look to closely at their problems and solutions. We are supposed to ignore the fleet of Land Rovers for the production team after all.