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American motors, anyone got one


Lucasnorth
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It’s got a 3 speed auto box Column shift. I believe it to be also call “ 3 on the tree” .

a F550 is some special kind of beast. Humongous 😁

the ford bronco was also on my list. But them the blazer and jimmy are few and far between in this country. 
 

and don’t even get me started on parts for them. Luckily I have found a site that practically has every part you could ever need in the USA. 
put $387 worth of parts in my basket the other day. Postage was $1,105. 20% vat on that. Plus 2.5% import duty. $1840 total.  
so £300 worth of parts was going to cost £1500. 😱

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4 hours ago, Lucasnorth said:

It’s got a 3 speed auto box Column shift. I believe it to be also call “ 3 on the tree” .

a F550 is some special kind of beast. Humongous 😁

the ford bronco was also on my list. But them the blazer and jimmy are few and far between in this country. 
 

and don’t even get me started on parts for them. Luckily I have found a site that practically has every part you could ever need in the USA. 
put $387 worth of parts in my basket the other day. Postage was $1,105. 20% vat on that. Plus 2.5% import duty. $1840 total.  
so £300 worth of parts was going to cost £1500. 😱

There used to be an American parts specialist in Nottingham. I am not sure if they are still operating, but a friend used to use them a lot for his Corvette parts. If I remember correctly(?) it was on Ilkeston Road.

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Not that old but i have a 20yr old chevy blazer 4.3L V6. One of the few right handers i am told. Goes like stink in a straight line but corners screaming like  a jelly mould. Sounds  great and best driven like ya stole it! Puts a grin on my face on and off road at a gas guzzling 15-18 ml to gallon. Still only done 100k. Aint cheap to run but very reliable and little goes wrong. Never gona wear them big motors out. Picked it up very cheep 10 years ago and was my shooting truck till a while ago. Folk laughed at it, as it got blacked out windows and labelled it the pimp mobile. But it got me in/ through all sorts of places off road with just with general grabbers on it. Auto 4x4 and locking diff's help. Being a weighty beast i have pulled others out of trouble and great fun in the snow. Soaks up every thing off road in comfort and will quietly burble along on tick over so you can sneak up on stuff that are used to running from the sound of a diesel. Have been known to put wheel in a furrow/rut and walk along side it. No one seems to want  to buy it/ them now? To juicy, parts, not many about and they will never be a classic. Use ranger now. Bit more practical more ground clearance and will still handle with A/T tyres.     NB

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On 31/05/2020 at 06:35, ditchman said:

us norfick boys love their american motors .....lots of them around here as fun / 2nd cars

My brother in law (also Norfolk) has had American cars for 20 odd years. He had a '70 Camero when I first met him, then an '83 Camero and then an early 90s corvette. He has randomly shifted to German muscle and has a Mercedes 500SEC now. 

Totally impractical on UK roads but what a blast! Went to a few car shows with him, the cars always got a lot of attention. I would love a yank tank of my own one day. 

 

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7 minutes ago, adzyvilla said:

My brother in law (also Norfolk) has had American cars for 20 odd years. He had a '70 Camero when I first met him, then an '83 Camero and then an early 90s corvette. He has randomly shifted to German muscle and has a Mercedes 500SEC now. 

Totally impractical on UK roads but what a blast! Went to a few car shows with him, the cars always got a lot of attention. I would love a yank tank of my own one day. 

 

there used to be a garage showroom the other side of thetford....that the USA base personal used to take their cars to when they had finished their tour at Mildenhall....dont know if it is still there...

 

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13 minutes ago, ditchman said:

cant remember the name..........you ought to know its on the suffolk border......it was on the mildenhall rounderbout

I've asked the old man, he'll remember I know he had a couple yank motors that came from round here somewhere.

I know there's a Volvo garage in the area that sells alot of left hand drive cars. 

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3 hours ago, ditchman said:

cant remember the name..........you ought to know its on the suffolk border......it was on the mildenhall rounderbout

There is Fliteline autos, off five ways roundabout on the Brandon Road and  American Auto Village at Eriswell, for all your American automobile needs!

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  • 5 weeks later...

Loads of American cars in skandinavia they go mad for them.

I like the 60's&70's muscle cars and the pick ups  would love a nice El Camino or hot rod pick up.  There is a group that meet up at the OK Diner on the A19 local to me. Nice to see and hear them go by if I'm out and about.

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We lived in Kuwait in the early 80's and decided to buy a Yank Tank as it was probably the only opportunity we would have to own one. It was a Dodge Monaco top of the range model with all the bells and whistles. It was 448 cu ins  (7litre) V8 model but felt grossly under powered.The only petrol available was leaded but the Yank Tanks had catalysts fitted which quickly clogged up, they also had crude emissions control systems fitted which didn't help the performance, this in a country which, on a bad day, stunk of oil refineries.

I had a chat with a nearby Egyptian owned garage who said they could sort it out. They explained what they would do and I drove the guys own car which had similar mods done. The mods were to replace the emission control system with the previous years ignition system, fit a four branch exhaust manifold to each cylinder bank, cut out the clogged up catalysts and removed one of the two silencers in each bank and replace the two remaining ones which were clogged up also. The car now had that V8 sound but was not too noisy. The car was on cross ply tyres, this was the early 80's remember, they were replaced by radials. The suspension was left alone as lot of my driving was done on desert tracks and, believe it or not for an American car the brakes were fine, discs all round. I had to run the car on higher octane petrol after the mods because of the ignition change which made the cost of petrol the equivalent of 10p a gallon instead 8p. The original air cleaner was retained because a lot of your driving was done in sand storms. My daily round trip to work was 110 miles, a lot of it out in the desert. Driving standards were appalling but the roads were good.

The car was transformed and wheel spinning was easily achieved to the detriment of the tyres. Fuel consumption was about 15mpg.

Vic.

 

Kuwait.jpg

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On 01/06/2020 at 20:41, NatureBoy said:

Not that old but i have a 20yr old chevy blazer 4.3L V6. One of the few right handers i am told. Goes like stink in a straight line but corners screaming like  a jelly mould. Sounds  great and best driven like ya stole it! Puts a grin on my face on and off road at a gas guzzling 15-18 ml to gallon. Still only done 100k. Aint cheap to run but very reliable and little goes wrong. Never gona wear them big motors out. Picked it up very cheep 10 years ago and was my shooting truck till a while ago. Folk laughed at it, as it got blacked out windows and labelled it the pimp mobile. But it got me in/ through all sorts of places off road with just with general grabbers on it. Auto 4x4 and locking diff's help. Being a weighty beast i have pulled others out of trouble and great fun in the snow. Soaks up every thing off road in comfort and will quietly burble along on tick over so you can sneak up on stuff that are used to running from the sound of a diesel. Have been known to put wheel in a furrow/rut and walk along side it. No one seems to want  to buy it/ them now? To juicy, parts, not many about and they will never be a classic. Use ranger now. Bit more practical more ground clearance and will still handle with A/T tyres.     NB

Don't believe you unless you post pictures 😁.. 

I wanted one as a kid. 

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4 hours ago, washerboy said:

Don't believe you unless you post pictures 😁.. 

I wanted one as a kid. 

No pics Washerboy. I recon you thinking of the old early K5's? They the classic blazer. Mine a all black 2000 reg LT 4 door. Like an estate on steroids. Plenty of pics and info on line. Look like smaller version of a Tahoe that all the baddies drive in the yank movies. RAC review about right summing them up. Only available  as right hookers here from 99-2002. Only seen 2 others in the 10 years since i got mine  Funny thing was one of them was what another ol biker mate brought not knowing i had one but for same reason. We both ride older Harleys/chops and liked the torquey throb'n big V motor rumbling sound. Lot of 4x4 motor (2000kg) n pokey for very little money. Pull like a train, loads of space in them. Great for camping fishing and shooting. Though many passengers who brave enough often felt sick from the amount they wallow. Mate pimped his, high lift, big wheels and low profile tyres. Handled real bad! Like an out of control skateboard. Side ways any where. They are meant to pogo. 😉 Smiles per miles!     NB         

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