Events : LEJoG in a Princess – arrival at the starting line

Karin, Alexander and the kids made it to the starting line.

Words and photography: Alexander Boucke

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As we reached Sennen Cove, a sandy bay next to Land’s End today, more than 600 miles lie already behind us. So far everything went well, in particular regarding the car.

The journey was split into two parts, the first covering the rather boring stretch of motorway through Belgium finishing at friends in Devon. The weather was nice, probably too nice to try the congestion announced on the M25 – whether the back roads around Brookland swere any faster is questionable, but it was surely better than slowly being boiled in the sun on the slow-moving motorway.

The second leg from Devon to Land’s End was much shorter. But sadly the day greeted us with regular heavy rain showers followed by the sat/nav announcing 20 miles of slow moving traffic on the A30. But crossing Dartmoor is sp much nicer anyway… Even the weather cleared and we could enjoy a rather beautiful drive.

Being so heavily loaded the little 1275cc A-Series often struggled on inclines and the automatic had to be worked hard, often being kicked down from fourth to second gear in one go.

Two minor faults have occurred with the Princess so far: during a particular heavy rain shower the ignition started to stutter, but properly re-seating the wire from coil to distributor did sort this. The other problem might be one for the near future, as the exhaust started to blow and seems to be developing a crack where it bends up to join the manifold on the engine. Fingers crossed, that it will be fine – if a little noisy.

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Alexander Boucke

3 Comments

  1. I know that one of the recommendations made in the U.S. for those (very few) who have the Austin America model is to have a modern-style woven steel flex joint adapted to the exhaust system, or to use urethane bushings on the engine stabilizing bar to limit engine movement. I assume this would also apply to all the various ADO16 models:

    http://www.austinamericausa.com/

    (Technical Advice, Exhaust System section)

    Apparently there is really no provision in the stock exhaust system to deal with engine movement, aside from soft rubber mounts, and it is prone to cracking.

  2. Surely using the urethane bushings on the torque rod would make it very noisy/harsh in the cabin?

  3. After much aggro with the ball joint type of flexi exhaust I welded in a woven flex joint in my Wolseley 18/85 never looked back, I can recommend this improvement to anyone.

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