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Alpine engines

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vagt6

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I've been eyeballing Alpines recently. Seems the pricing is somehow comparatively low on some rather nice examples I've seen on eBay, etc. Really lovely cars for a good price, IMHO.

What's the lowdown on Alpine engines? Are they reliable, and are parts available? How much HP/torque?

Any input on Alpine engines would be appreciated.
 
Yes they are reliable and all the parts are available, except for the series 4 with the solex carb, the good news is that the solex uses the intake manifold needed to put on a webber so either way its not a bad deal.
 
They are very good.With a well set up engine you can really have a great car.Of course getting to know what it can do is a great help.One person let Rosemary Smith who was a Rootes rally driver drive his car.He said if he wasn't sitting in his car he would not have known it was his.That was experience driving it.
 
The Rootes 4-cylinder is a bit of a lump. Reliable, but a bit overweight and underpowered, even in 1725cc Alpine / Rapier form. They do respond to tuning, but not as well as their contemporary British Ford or even BMC motors.
Not too bad though - I drove one for two years or so in the early 60s.
 
I've got a friend with a couple Aplines and tried to buy three on separate occaisons. The cars are quite nice and more comfortable than most small Brit cars. As stated, the engine is reliable but not real powerful. And as with all Brit cars, they are prone to rust. They have OD as an option and it well worth it. That's why didn't close the deal on one car.
 
They do rust in the fenders and rockers but unlike the other british cars they have a huge x-frame underneath them and they will stay solid when another car would have already broken in half.
 
Good point, Steve.

How about the gearbox? It is a Triumph or MG transplant? I assume the OD units are Laycocks. Do you know if the Alpines had A types or D types?

Thanks for all the input. :thumbsup:
 
In 1965 the Alpine V had the Rootes 1725 4 cyl. It was a 5 bearing version of the old Hillman Minx engine, 92.5 hp. Don't know, but maybe the tranny and OD were Hillman also.
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