Amazon: 1964 Amazon 122S restoration project

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Juular

That around about what I expected to hear and I'm glad to know it's achievable with that setup.

If I can get 25-30mpg routinely I'll be happy. The rortiness of the twin carb engine with pancake filters is quite addictive!

Can I ask what sort of 0-60 figure you estimate you get with the 4.1 & OD? Is it slouchy or do you feel like it compares reasonably well with modern traffic?

… you asked about 0-60 figures for the Amazon; I’ve never tested it but it would not be fast - I’d take a SWAG at about 15 seconds.

This time of year I use the silver wheels with 175/60 section winter tyres (M&S, not really proper winter tyres), which lower the gearing back to what it would have been with a 4.56:1 rear axle. That makes the motor car noticeably more spritely and it keeps up with traffic really well (I’ve even overtaken a few cars - and no, they were not just milk floats).

In the summer I use the red wheels (same pattern as yours) with 165/80 section tyres, just like your motor car the gearing is about 7% higher than standard. I think the taller gearing is pretty good, acceleration is still at least good enough to keep up with old people driving Fiestas to the golf links. With the 165/80 tyres high speed (70 MPH) cruising is much better than with standard gearing, which is a huge advantage for longer journeys.

In conclusion: I think your Amazon should be able to keep up with modern traffic pretty well.

Alan

[Juular]

Originally Posted by Othen

… you asked about 0-60 figures for the Amazon; I’ve never tested it but it would not be fast - I’d take a SWAG at about 15 seconds.
:

Thanks! I ask mainly just as I don't have a frame of reference for how well the car is running in terms of performance.

I find it quite lively at lower speeds actually, and around town it's far from being the slowest car amongst a sea of modern and electric rubbish.

I do find it a bit breathless doing an uphill slip road onto the motorway but I may be asking a little much of it. I am not sure what BHP the high compression head and D cam combination outputs in the real world.

Interesting to note the ability to change wheels and essentially have the shorter diff. I have a set of spare wheels I could fit some cheap tyres to just to see how it feels.

At the moment I am quite enjoying how relaxed the cruising is at 60-70. In comparison to my partner's Toledo 1300 which must be doing 4-5k at 70 it's night and day.

I imagine it's doing sub 3000rpm at 70 which is brilliant.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Juular

Thanks! I ask mainly just as I don't have a frame of reference for how well the car is running in terms of performance.

I find it quite lively at lower speeds actually, and around town it's far from being the slowest car amongst a sea of modern and electric rubbish.

I do find it a bit breathless doing an uphill slip road onto the motorway but I may be asking a little much of it. I am not sure what BHP the high compression head and D cam combination outputs in the real world.

Interesting to note the ability to change wheels and essentially have the shorter diff. I have a set of spare wheels I could fit some cheap tyres to just to see how it feels.

At the moment I am quite enjoying how relaxed the cruising is at 60-70. In comparison to my partner's Toledo 1300 which must be doing 4-5k at 70 it's night and day.

I imagine it's doing sub 3000rpm at 70 which is brilliant.

Trawling through t'internet to try and find some figures, it seems the B18D with twin carbs and B cam produced ~95bhp and gave similar performance to an MGB of the time which, if memory serves was 0-60 in ~13s and top end ~100mph - these figures are slightly vague as i can't remember the MGB figures but know they were around those numbers.

A bit more usefully, i found an advert from c. 1964/5 that proudly announced the 122S returned 25+mpg. This might not sound like something to celebrate but those were US gallons, ~0.8 of an Imperial gallon so 30mpg should be realistic or at least very close to.

I had hoped to find a copy of something like a "Motor" road test with the figures recorded for performance but this was the best i could manage - hope they give a bit of insight!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Trawling through t'internet to try and find some figures, it seems the B18D with twin carbs and B cam produced ~95bhp and gave similar performance to an MGB of the time which, if memory serves was 0-60 in ~13s and top end ~100mph - these figures are slightly vague as i can't remember the MGB figures but know they were around those numbers.

A bit more usefully, i found an advert from c. 1964/5 that proudly announced the 122S returned 25+mpg. This might not sound like something to celebrate but those were US gallons, ~0.8 of an Imperial gallon so 30mpg should be realistic or at least very close to.

I had hoped to find a copy of something like a "Motor" road test with the figures recorded for performance but this was the best i could manage - hope they give a bit of insight!

That was a different era Dave, petrol was relatively cheap and expectations were lower. I recall seeing a Ford advertisement back in the 70s that boasted one of its new models (I can’t remember which - but probably an Escort) would achieve 30 MPG. Nowadays manufacturers would be ashamed of 30 MPG, but then it was very good.

Times change.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Juular

Thanks! I ask mainly just as I don't have a frame of reference for how well the car is running in terms of performance.

I find it quite lively at lower speeds actually, and around town it's far from being the slowest car amongst a sea of modern and electric rubbish.

I do find it a bit breathless doing an uphill slip road onto the motorway but I may be asking a little much of it. I am not sure what BHP the high compression head and D cam combination outputs in the real world.

Interesting to note the ability to change wheels and essentially have the shorter diff. I have a set of spare wheels I could fit some cheap tyres to just to see how it feels.

At the moment I am quite enjoying how relaxed the cruising is at 60-70. In comparison to my partner's Toledo 1300 which must be doing 4-5k at 70 it's night and day.

I imagine it's doing sub 3000rpm at 70 which is brilliant.

That is exactly what I did with the wheels and tyres. I acquired a set of later Amazon wheels (£30 for all 5 if I recall), gave them a scrub up and fitted the cheapest 175/60 tyres I could find (£130 for 5 if I remember correctly- including a 165 for the spare to fit the well). They are perfect for the winter: more expendable with some hub caps from a 140 that fit (about a tenner for a big box containing perhaps a dozen caps) so I can keep the smart red wheels and shiny new hub caps for the summer. They also have the advantage of lowering the gearing to what it would have been with a 4.56:1 rear axle with the 175/60 tyres, so the speedometer reads correctly and the acceleration is quite zippy at this time of year.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

That was a different era Dave, petrol was relatively cheap and expectations were lower. I recall seeing a Ford advertisement back in the 70s that boasted one of its new models (I can’t remember which - but probably an Escort) would achieve 30 MPG. Nowadays manufacturers would be ashamed of 30 MPG, but then it was very good.

Times change.

I was making the point an Amazon should achieve 30mpg on UK gallons Alan, not the expectation of great figures from it. With a US gallon being ~0.8 UK gallons, their mpg figures were inherently lower.
I get what you say about times changing but even in the 70s, 25mpg wasn't something to shout too loudly about from a mid-sized car. By the early 80s, many manufacturers were boasting of 50+mpg from a mid-size 1600cc car (Mk2 Cavalier with 5 speed box, 51.4mpg) so times definitely do change and with it, technology.