29-04-2017, 07:46 AM
Ah yes - driving on a shoestring 
I never owned an Austin 1300 but when I was working out in Zimbabwe I did have an Austin Apache for a year in 1984,this was a car built 1971 - 1978 in S Africa by Leykor and in Spain by Authie.
It had the AD016 centre section chassis/body as a basis but the front and rear of the car was more akin to the Triumph Toledo.
The interior of the car was identical to the Austin 1100/1300 and I guess mine was a 1972/73 model as it had the original 'Strip' speedo.
It was a cute little car and nice to drive,2nd gear would not select so I had to rev the nuts off it and go straight to 3rd,it had an oil leak on the engine which I just ignored - I had no facilities or time to fix it as all my spare time was spent Gliding or drinking
On really hot days it had to be driven at 40mph as the transverse 'A' series engine still had the stupid side mounted Rad - any slower or faster and the car tended to overheat.
I remember a stinking hot day when I took 2 friends up for interviews in Harare which was a journey of approx 250 Klicks,having to drive at 40 to keep the water temp reasonable - I pulled into a filling station at halfway point and one of my friends asked ''need petrol ?'' and I replied 'no - but we will need some engine oil LOL'.
The interview was for working on jets in an even dodgier African country so I did not try very hard on the interview and just treated it as a sociable weekend away from the boonies in Gwelo
I was very happy not to get offered a job - the other 2 did and later regretted going to Somalia !!!
These are obviously not pics of my car (cannot find any)...
![[Image: austin_apache_white_c1970_zps8c516473.jpg]](http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/vv316/volvosmoker/cars/austin_apache_white_c1970_zps8c516473.jpg)
![[Image: 112.jpg]](http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/vv316/volvosmoker/cars/112.jpg)
I never owned an Austin 1300 but when I was working out in Zimbabwe I did have an Austin Apache for a year in 1984,this was a car built 1971 - 1978 in S Africa by Leykor and in Spain by Authie.
It had the AD016 centre section chassis/body as a basis but the front and rear of the car was more akin to the Triumph Toledo.
The interior of the car was identical to the Austin 1100/1300 and I guess mine was a 1972/73 model as it had the original 'Strip' speedo.
It was a cute little car and nice to drive,2nd gear would not select so I had to rev the nuts off it and go straight to 3rd,it had an oil leak on the engine which I just ignored - I had no facilities or time to fix it as all my spare time was spent Gliding or drinking
On really hot days it had to be driven at 40mph as the transverse 'A' series engine still had the stupid side mounted Rad - any slower or faster and the car tended to overheat.
I remember a stinking hot day when I took 2 friends up for interviews in Harare which was a journey of approx 250 Klicks,having to drive at 40 to keep the water temp reasonable - I pulled into a filling station at halfway point and one of my friends asked ''need petrol ?'' and I replied 'no - but we will need some engine oil LOL'.
The interview was for working on jets in an even dodgier African country so I did not try very hard on the interview and just treated it as a sociable weekend away from the boonies in Gwelo
I was very happy not to get offered a job - the other 2 did and later regretted going to Somalia !!!
These are obviously not pics of my car (cannot find any)...