A friend of mine owns one of these - I figured that he had some long
forgotten urge to own a slant-back Barracuda or something.
Rare, unusual, even heavier than the already portly regular alpine, and like
all Alpines, the styling definitely an acquired taste.
Always did enjoy seeing the cars with downdraft carbs, though - you could
tell them by the two holes burned through the paint on the bonnet, as the
owners
often replaced the aircleaners with foam style 'racing' units which had the
bad habit of absorbing the gas ejected when the carbs backfired into the
cleaners, until they became sodden and finally burst into flame.
Speaking of sodden, I was with some other guys in university, me driving my
MGA and a couple of them driving an Alpine. They fired up their ultra-Minx
special to let it warm up while we chatted outside the pub (we call them that
in
Canada as well), and all of a sudden there was smoke in the air and black spots
started appearing on the bonnet as the carb fires were obviously burning and
the paint bubbled. They opened the bonnet, which fanned the flames and I
suggested to them that they piss on the engine to put it out.
They were afraid of being singed, and apparently anxiety prevented the
functioning of their 'fire prevention gear'. While at any other time I would
have
been delighted to have done the honours to the aptly named Rootes group
product,
especially at the request of the owner, I was too busy falling about laughing
to be able to get the required tackle unlimbered and mobilised.
The two of them figured they would have to watch the car burn to the ground
until I steadied myself and stopped laughing long enough to try simply putting
my foot on their accelerator, which sucked the fire out.
Always figured that Sunbeam should have included a bag of marshmallows and a
stick in the emergency kit for the Alpine.....
Bill
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