Departure time: 1250hrs
Arrival Time: 2010hrs
Distance travelled: 389 miles
Stops: Keele Services, M6
Abingdon Services, M74
Petrol Used: 45 ltrs petrol used returning 39.3 MPG (Shell Optimax)
Oil used: 0.5lts of 20/40 mineral
Remarkable little car indeed.
Following on from my review of driving it last month I can add the following:
Driving position is comfortable but a tad old fashioned, the seats are good and provide support to even the largest gent; no BMC neck cramp here; after all it was made for the Dutch – a race of giants. The pedals are slightly offset to the left so you have to crook your right leg a wee bit, this is because the wheel arch does intrude into the foot well and reminds you of what a small car this is despite the big car feeling you get in the cabin. The height of the roof and the amount of glass exacerbates this.
Progress is respectable for a 1973 car. The more I drive it the more I do not understand the criticisms this car had from British motorists at the time. It returns faster 0-60mph times than many of its larger engined comtempories and is certainly quicker off the mark and round town than many modern cars.
Driving technique requires getting your head around the principle of variomatic, which I won’t get into here, but is essentially around momentum – spinning the engine to bring the power when needed but easing off the throttle to maintain ‘cruising speed’.
On the motorway the car cruises most happily at around 65-68mph. Over 75 the ride gets a bit iffy and wayward as the nose wanders a bit. All in all it is a competent motorway cruiser and much better than my old Morris as it is easily faster than the HGVs. Overtaking at speed and pulling into the outside lane is a question of timing and momentum. The trade off for the efficiency of the engine is lack of power when serious hills are encountered. Both Shap and Beattock summits are the highest motorway points in the UK with long hills to climb. In a Tdi or in the BMW you don’t notice them – the 535i will storm up them without checking it’s stride. 850cc of flat 2 air-cooled up front does feel them though! Holland is, after all, mostly flat! Mind you – road speed on these hills never dropped below 55mph so not too bad. A 1.4 Focus I hired recently wasn’t much better up Beattock.
Several nasty rain storms were taken in stride. No aquaplaning, slipping etc.
By 1900hrs I had reached the A702. 38 miles of A road through the hilly borders country to Edinburgh. I was a bit concerned about the car on the A road as there are some big hills but once again she surprised me and kept a decent road speed just under 60mph on all but the steepest bits where she never dropped below 45mph. The only difference the A road made is because you use your brakes more the efficiency of the brakes deteriorates, after all this car has all round drums. This is worth remembering when coming into a 30mph as if you rely on them to slow you you will probably end up in the boot of the car in front.l
Reaching Edinburgh the car once again demonstrated its nippiness in town. Off the mark at roundabouts and traffic lights the variomatic system is snappy and I caned a saxo for the first 50 yards. Diving into gaps is all very well but you have to recall that after the first 50 yards the acceleration is 1970 850cc figs!
Anyway, a stress free, fun, relaxing journey in a delightful wee car that is probably more at home on the motorway than it is on a B road as it is all about momentum!
Here are the long awaited pics!
850cc of flat 2 boxer aircooler power!
a closer look of the actual engine - tiny thing - note the air cooling cowling and the exhaust complexity
The spare tyre is actually listed as as a saftey feature in the manual - the position is to cushion the driver from collision - a sort of pre inflated air bag. On LHD versions it is obviously mounted on the other side.
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