The V8 Owners Forum -

This site got mentioned on top gear last night but worth a visit even so, just to know how few really bad death traps of cars are left.
http://howmanyleft.co.uk/?q=fiat+126
You can reasure yourself there is only 1 1750 auto Allegro left, I drove one once, it was terrifying.
Best regards
Mike

kiwicar wrote:This site got mentioned on top gear last night but worth a visit even so, just to know how few really bad death traps of cars are left.
http://howmanyleft.co.uk/?q=fiat+126
You can reasure yourself there is only 1 1750 auto Allegro left, I drove one once, it was terrifying.
Best regards
Mike

I presume the one you drove was some old banger?

My brother had several Allegros - and apart from being pig ugly were no different in essence from any other BL FWD. Ie, in general, a lot better handling that similar sized offers from other makers. He also reckoned the estate was an ideal size.

That site's been discussed on the SD1 forum, and in terms of SD1s is pretty inaccurate. I'd guess you have to know *exactly* how a model is register to search the DVLA for it.

"I presume the one you drove was some old banger?"

Hi Dave
no it was a hire car about 1k miles old at the time , I remember it as being grosely over powered with terrible torque stear, the whole chassis bounced on it's hydro whatsit suspension which still was pumped up very high having recently left the factory and the auto box was glacial about changing gear and it bump steered like mad.
I drove the equivilent engine maxi quite alot as my Dad had one, it was quite nice in comparison even though it had the terible 5 speed box (that was best treeted as a 3 speed, 1, 3, 5 so the syncromesh had lots of time to get used to the idea of changing gear.
I also drove 1100 and 1300 and a mg version, all nice to drive, though a bit dull, even the 1300 allegro was a reasonable car but the 1750 horrid!
Best regards
Mike

I learnt to drive in a 1.5 Allegro3 - a much better car than the metros that the driving instructors were using at the time. I would definitely say that the 1.5 twin carb engine was about as much as the allegro could really take - and since most of my friends were driving mk2 escorts and 850cc minis at the time, I was driving the performance car! While I wouldn't class it as a great car, very little from that era was. At least the Allegro went where you pointed it and was reliable.

My first car was a 1978 1500cc Allegro. Very reliable and comfortable. It used to cruise up and down the M6 very well. I paid £300 for it in 1986 and got £300 for it when I traded it in for a Mk2 Cav SRi 3 years later

Dave