A trouble-free 100,000 miles?

Sir,

Repeatedly in your Readers’ Letters. I find myself reading the praises of foreign cars and I feel I must redress the balance.

I bought a Hillman Husky II from my brother after it had done 52,000 miles; and after a routine service and fitting Koni shock absorbers I left with it for East Africa. Already nearly six years old, in the next 15 months it was used for a further 25,000 miles over every type of African road, following the 1967 Safari Rally, following elephant through the bush and on regular trips of around 590 miles a day. Finally it carried four people with full luggage from Nairobi to Cape Town, about 5,000 miles, to be put on Edinburgh Castle to return home. During this time it only required attention to the exhaust system (those centre humps in the road can be annoying) and tyres, which suffer on any car driven hard on loose surfaces. A leaking radiator was fixed at midnight by one of many, if well-spaced, garages who know how to be helpful!

Since its return, the clock has come round again to 20,000 and it has benefited from the fitting of a replacement 1,500 engine, with a Nerus head and a single S.U. carburetter. The handling was transformed with radials and these performed well on loose surfaces, in spite of warnings about ripped sidewalls.

This is what I call good, reliable motoring, and I didn’t have to buy foreign to achieve it. I shall be disappointed if it doesn’t go on for a further 50,000.

Bristol.
Colin G. Rendle.