30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by Bluesuit »

Liking Nige and Veesix 75's threads, it prompted me to rummage in the photobox.

Hadn't occurred to me that my Alfa association goes back over 30 years! It includes 12 Alfas, 6 of which were boxers. It started in 1983 with a bright yellow Alfasud 5M (all of 65BHP), though I had sampled 2 other Italian marques before that with my 1st 2 cars: a Fiat 124 Special (not sure what was special - most people thought it was a Lada!), and especially for Kev, a Lancia Beta 1300GT (Mk1) - this was where my allergy to rust began. The Lancia didn't end well with me plonking it in a ditch, which given the rust it was hiding meant it was scrap. The Sud 5M cost me £450 and despite the lack of power did me well for 2 years running between Kingston and Abingdon while I was at Polytechnic, though I did need to get new sills, rear wheel arches and change the clutch. I traded it for my first decent car, a 5 year old black 1.5 Sprint Veloce which at 95 BHP was a massive improvement over the 5M - loved this car, in fact if were to return to boxer ownership I think it would be either a 1.5 Sprint Green Cloverleaf, or a 1.7 if I could find one and had the money.
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Fiat 124 Special (Left) Lancia Beta 1300GT (Right)
Fiat 124 Special (Left) Lancia Beta 1300GT (Right)
Alfasud 5M
Alfasud 5M
1.5 Sprint Veloce
1.5 Sprint Veloce
Last edited by Bluesuit on Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:40 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Next up started our long association with the S3 Alfasud 105TI Green Cloverleaf - another step change - so much more refined, practical, powerful and good looking, stood out against the sea of XR3s at the time. Unhappily my relationship with this car didn't get off to a good start, 2 weeks after we got it, I got sideswiped by a dozy idiot who pulled out into the side of me when I was on my way back from Lincoln to Cranwell. It took a year to sort the insurance and the repairs, mainly because Alfa had run out of rear wing panels so we had to wait until they made a new batch. This incident also introduced me to BLS, they looked after the mechanical bits whilst A&B bodyworks in Lincoln did the bodywork. Whilst this was off the road I bought my father-in-law's Saab 99 to keep us running. Happily we got the Sud back when I moved to Brize Norton and we kept it for 13 years, in which time it had at least 2 more major re-sprays and rust repairs to keep it as close to concours as I could. after 10 years ownership, it developed head gasket problems and began burning oil, also the gearbox synchros were wearing, so I sent it up to BLS for a full engine and gearbox rebuild (re-bore and crank regrind etc). We planned to keep it long term, but the arrival of kids, moving to a house that had a damp garage didn't help. The deciding factor was when one of the front strut top nuts came undone with my wife driving it - fortunately, she was only doing 20 when it came off, so no damage, but what worried me was I was doing 80 down the A14 the day before with my daughter on board. My advice - check those strut top nuts are secure and put some loctite on them. I saw my sud for sale on piston heads about 4 years ago, it had clearly had more work done as the tow bar had gone and the red striping above the sills was missing and the wheels had been swapped from TRX to imperials. I still have my records of it in my ownership, the guy selling it (£3000) at the time said he had no history, which was quite disappointing as I had kept every invoice for bits or work done and gave this to the guy I sold it too.

At the same time we had the S3 Sud, I also wanted a project. My first attempt was a 105 series Bertone. It didn't look too bad and cost me £600, but by the time I had stripped it down it needed major body surgery, and I didn't have the budget, and despite the motorsport heritage of nearby Whitney, I could not find a decent, affordable bodyshop in the area, so I sold it for spares and got my money back. The second attempt was an S2 Sud 1.5Ti for £300, this was an easier proposition as you could still get all the body panels. It needed front wings, inner wings, front panel, sills, wheelarches - the usual. The interior was pretty ropey but I found another in a local scrap yard with a good full interior. It also had a Webasto sunroof which I got a trimmer in Colchester to recover. I did a full engine rebuild, but the gearbox was fine. I worked out it cost me £2500, we kept it for 2 years and sold it for £1600, sadly the new owner wrote it off 2 years later I believe. This was a great project, but after the S3 Sud, the 85BHP (single twin carb) seemed a bit gutless.
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Sud Ti 105 Green Cloverleaf
Sud Ti 105 Green Cloverleaf
After we got sideswiped
After we got sideswiped
Looked good but there was a lot of rust, especially under the vinyl roof
Looked good but there was a lot of rust, especially under the vinyl roof
S2 Sud 1.5Ti Project - Before
S2 Sud 1.5Ti Project - Before
S2 Sud back from the welder's
S2 Sud back from the welder's
S2 Sud finished
S2 Sud finished
His & Hers Suds
His & Hers Suds
Last edited by Bluesuit on Sun Oct 05, 2014 7:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by Alfasixnut »

Thanks for sharing your Alfa story. - a great read.

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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At this point I began my detour into Land Rovers, with a Range Rover Vogue (great V8 but it had a bad drink problem). We still had the S3 Sud, and this was joined by 33 Sportwagon 1.7 Green Cloverleaf in place of the Range Rover. I loved this car, great looking, especially with the Veloce kit, practical (we had kids and pushchairs to shift then), and quick, the 1.7 was more tractable and better geared than the S3 Sud which was quite peaky. With the S3 sud being away for its rebuild I needed something else, first up was nice looking Black Lancia Delta (especially for Kev) which I ran for about 6 months until someone offered to buy it, so I acquired a tatty Cream Sprint Veloce (had horrible fibreglass wings) but was fun to run about in until we got the Sud back. A second child meant we needed something a little larger, so the 33 was replaced by a fine 164 3.0V6 Lusso. This had all the mod cons you could dream of - air con, electric seats, CD player etc, but the V6 was gorgeous and economical (30 mpg). We kept this one for 5 years, eventually selling it to an enthusiast, when we switched to a Land Rover Discovery. Last Alfa we had at that time was an Alfetta GTV - my wife heard that the owner had an ultimatum to shift it or his wife would get it scrapped, I acquired it for £250 - it was a bit tatty and came with 4 spare (or is that scrap) engines. I fixed a number of problems on it and ran this for a year, meaning I still had something relevant to attend AROC meetings in. Eventually another enthusiast looking for a project parted with £500 to take it (and the engines) off me - the first Alfa I made money on!

A 10 year break in Alfa ownership followed as I pursued my other interest: Series Land-Rovers. Then an old Alfa Club friend suggested I should get back into Alfas, he was involved in the Top Gear Alfa episode and suggested I look at a GTV as they were nice and cheap and quite well built. As a result I ended up getting a Phase 1 GTV 2.0TS for £900, which gave me a lot of fun and rekindled my interest in Alfas such that I traded it and the Mrs' Fabia VRS for a GT 1.9JTD - A car I really like, when it doesn't develop frustrating little or as has also been the case, quite large, niggles! Recently in a piece of deja-vu, someone threatened to scrap a red Phase 2 916GTV, unless someone offered him at least £400 (it had 10 months Tax and 4 months MOT), that someone was me, and it's not doing too bad, apart from some peeling paint and failing its MOT, because of a damaged flexi brake hose, but that was easily fixed. I've a list of jobs to do such as clutch (noisey release bearing) and cambelts etc, oh and then get it re-sprayed when the piggy bank permits....

That brings me up to date - 21 years of Alfa Ownership over the last 31 years, I hope there will continue to be a few more.

Cheers

Ian
Attachments
Lancia Delta 1.5
Lancia Delta 1.5
Tatty Sprint Veloce
Tatty Sprint Veloce
33 Sport Wagon 1.7 Green Cloverleaf Veloce
33 Sport Wagon 1.7 Green Cloverleaf Veloce
Alfa 164 3.0V6 Lusso - Gorgeous
Alfa 164 3.0V6 Lusso - Gorgeous
Tatty Alfetta 2.0 GTV - potential to be a real money pit!
Tatty Alfetta 2.0 GTV - potential to be a real money pit!
Land Rovers - 1960 Series 2 109 Station Wagon (Red) and 1959 Series 2 Pick-Up - tatty bodywork is all part of the appeal to these.
Land Rovers - 1960 Series 2 109 Station Wagon (Red) and 1959 Series 2 Pick-Up - tatty bodywork is all part of the appeal to these.
Phase 1 916 GTV 2.0TS
Phase 1 916 GTV 2.0TS
Phase 2 2.0GTV TS and GT 1.9JTDM
Phase 2 2.0GTV TS and GT 1.9JTDM
Last edited by Bluesuit on Thu May 22, 2014 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by KevJTD »

another great read ;)

my own first lancia delta was a 1.5, but not an LX like yours. just the base one. still liked to rev depsite only being a single cam engine. was a while before i got my first twin-cam 8-)

i'd love to do a thread like this on my purchases but i've hardly any pics, maybe i'll try and remember them anyway.

lovely story 8-)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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KevJTD wrote: i'd love to do a thread like this on my purchases but i've hardly any pics, maybe i'll try and remember them anyway.
hardly any pics? just the odd monster rebuild thread.....
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Bluesuit wrote:
KevJTD wrote: i'd love to do a thread like this on my purchases but i've hardly any pics, maybe i'll try and remember them anyway.
hardly any pics? just the odd monster rebuild thread.....
:D
yes, loads from recent restos' but can't think i've any from back in the 80's/90's when i had that lancia delta 1.5, then a few prisma's, hf turbo, dedra's inc turbo etc etc.
won't mention any of the fords etc :?
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Some nice cars there Ian, another man with excellent taste !

Never owned a Lancia but have often thought I should. I did admire the HPE that a guy I worked with at Coningsby owned but of course despite its nice looks and get up and go it eventually just got up and went - back to iron oxide......

Back in the day when I owned 65 BHP 'suds they seemed to have loads of power compared to the bog standard BL crap etc which always got in the way when you were out for a blast. Naturally I always coveted the Green Cloverleaf with the massive power increase to 95 BHP but they were thin on the ground even then and probably cost more than I could afford anyway. I did try to do a deal for one with a guy near Woodhall Spa, can't remember the details now, but it never happened.

This has just reminded me about a guy in Horncastle who I think had a few 116 cars, went to look at one he was flogging, probably an Alfetta GTV 2.0, which turned out to be a rotbox of epic proportions. Wonder what happened to him ?

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by Bluesuit »

Thanks Nige

Never did Coningsby, but a mate of mine did so we visited, I did take the Spey Engine overhaul facility from Woodhall Spa to Wattisham though.

The chap I sold the Bertone to had a collection of about 30 cars including a Jenson Interceptor, Gordon Keeble and 2/3 Alfas (105s), one of which was a GTC, he wanted mine for spares, it had 2 good doors (and that was about the only thing good about it!). Never got to drive it, one of these days I'd like to try a 105, I particularly like the boxy Guilia Super saloons, they look so sedate but with the same underpinnings as the coupe and spider, a bit of wolf in sheep's clothing.

Sadly according to DVLA it seems none of my older classics are on the road - the 164 was due tax in 2006, and the S3 Sud 2008, so that does not bode well for them, a shame when you put all that effort in early on. The guy who bought my 164 had won the Sud Ti Green Cloverleaf that Alfa GB restored to promote people to do up their suds so they could shift all the spare parts. I remember a number of magazine articles showing it in pristine condition, but when it chuggered up my drive with 1 wiper, dull paint it looked very sad. The guy said he was disappointed to have let it go and vowed to look after the 164, sadly I think it got hit by a van when parked, but last I heard he was looking to get it repaired, maybe not it seems.

Cheers

Ian
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Bluesuit wrote:Thanks Nige

Never did Coningsby, but a mate of mine did so we visited, I did take the Spey Engine overhaul facility from Woodhall Spa to Wattisham though.

The chap I sold the Bertone to had a collection of about 30 cars including a Jenson Interceptor, Gordon Keeble and 2/3 Alfas (105s), one of which was a GTC, he wanted mine for spares, it had 2 good doors (and that was about the only thing good about it!). Never got to drive it, one of these days I'd like to try a 105, I particularly like the boxy Guilia Super saloons, they look so sedate but with the same underpinnings as the coupe and spider, a bit of wolf in sheep's clothing.

Sadly according to DVLA it seems none of my older classics are on the road - the 164 was due tax in 2006, and the S3 Sud 2008, so that does not bode well for them, a shame when you put all that effort in early on. The guy who bought my 164 had won the Sud Ti Green Cloverleaf that Alfa GB restored to promote people to do up their suds so they could shift all the spare parts. I remember a number of magazine articles showing it in pristine condition, but when it chuggered up my drive with 1 wiper, dull paint it looked very sad. The guy said he was disappointed to have let it go and vowed to look after the 164, sadly I think it got hit by a van when parked, but last I heard he was looking to get it repaired, maybe not it seems.

Cheers

Ian

Ah, RAF Woodhall Spa, should have been called Much Binding In The Marsh ! Didn't know it had gone to Wattisham though, another place I enjoyed back in the days of 56 ? and 111 Lightnings !

Sometimes it's best not to know what happens to our cherished cars. Chris, Supercharged on here, did some research into what happened to HV 50, my first ever 'sud I had in Cyprus, it was not a good result.

Below, the fun days of the Cold War as seen from Wattisham in early 1975 !

( Sorry about the pic quality, like me, they are fading away ! )
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Lightinings 1.jpg
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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The mighty lightning . What an amazing plane! I will never forget seeing one displaying at RAF Manston in 1988. My dad turned to me and said watch this :shock: took off and went vertical 8-)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Johnboy wrote:The mighty lightning . What an amazing plane! I will never forget seeing one displaying at RAF Manston in 1988. My dad turned to me and said watch this :shock: took off and went vertical 8-)

Impressive at what they were designed for John and great to watch.

I still miss all of those iconic aircraft which were current at about the same time that I was !!! Discouraging when you go to places like Lincs Aviation at East Kirkby and see bits of kit that you used to work on are on display as an exhibit. Some time soon maybe they'll built a glass case big enough to put me on display too...... ! :shock:
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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:lol:
Yeah it's a shame , at least there's three operational lightning in this country for fast taxi's and there was three flying in South Africa in thunder City . But sadly one crashed and killed the pilot .
at least Vulcan xh558 is still in the air for a bit longer 8-)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Johnboy wrote::lol:
Yeah it's a shame , at least there's three operational lightning in this country for fast taxi's and there was three flying in South Africa in thunder City . But sadly one crashed and killed the pilot .
at least Vulcan xh558 is still in the air for a bit longer 8-)
Just wonder how long they'll be able to keep the Vulcan going, I think funds are a bit tight to say the least.

Read up on the Lightning story last year in a superb book that I borrowed from a friend, lots of interesting insights and personal accounts in there. One thing that wasn't in it was the song the ground crew used to sing on drunken nights, " There's a Jockey up in front who flies it like a c...... " :shock:

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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:lol:
Yeah there's some great videos on utube with some amazing stories too .

One of the best ones ,a foreign pilot comes over to test the lightning , they told him not to give it full throttle on takeoff , which he didn't listen to! He managed to get the undercarriage back in at 20000 feet :lol:
Another one. A pilot took one up , on he's return they asked how was it .... It was going really well , right up until I let the brakes off :lol:
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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:lol:

Caught a few people out, including one Squadron Engineering Officer who was checking something out and managed to inadvertently get airborne. :shock: Got back down safely but both shaken and stirred !!

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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:P yeah I heard about that story too . That lightning is at duxford now and the engineer went to see the plane that nearly killed him afew years ago .i bet he needed new under where :lol:
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Johnboy wrote::P yeah I heard about that story too . That lightning is at duxford now and the engineer went to see the plane that nearly killed him afew years ago .i bet he needed new under where :lol:

Didn't know that, must have seen it then when I was last at Duxford with AROC.

No worry about the underwear, the NAAFI was open ! :mrgreen:

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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we have an ex lightning pilot amongst us, i'll leave it to him to tell a few stories if he fancies it ;)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Cool thats good to know! I've been watching videos on utube again ,just love that plane 8-)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by Bluesuit »

Nige

That looks like the Airfix lightning we used to have on the Gate, I had to look after it, though it was in poor condition - rotten. I ended up putting a phantom on to replace it, but the army scrapped it when they took over, happy to hear they are putting the ex-Brampton one on there now, 20 years later.

The woodhall spa Spey facility was moved when all F-4 support was going to be centred on Wattisham, sadly peace broke out (apparently!) and everything was scrapped - another of my sad jobs.

But happily I managed to take the Wattisham and Bruggen Spey engine test facilities and some engines down to Shoeburyness for use in R&D trials, where they remain still doing their stuff to this day, first customer was Richard Noble and his Thrust SSC project.

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Bluesuit wrote:Nige

That looks like the Airfix lightning we used to have on the Gate, I had to look after it, though it was in poor condition - rotten. I ended up putting a phantom on to replace it, but the army scrapped it when they took over, happy to hear they are putting the ex-Brampton one on there now, 20 years later.

The woodhall spa Spey facility was moved when all F-4 support was going to be centred on Wattisham, sadly peace broke out (apparently!) and everything was scrapped - another of my sad jobs.

But happily I managed to take the Wattisham and Bruggen Spey engine test facilities and some engines down to Shoeburyness for use in R&D trials, where they remain still doing their stuff to this day, first customer was Richard Noble and his Thrust SSC project.

Ian

Even back then in 1975 there were a few that were parked in the dump area rotting away nicely. The dump area was wide open and lots of, to me anyway, interesting electronic stuff just dumped there. On a weekend shift used to spend a few enjoyable hours rummaging around for treasure !

Seems that there may well be lots of interesting tales still to be told, bring 'em on. And if only digital cameras were around at the time, I have very few pics from that era, 35mm film was far too expensive to just snap away regardless.

Happy times in darkest Suffolk, plus a few barely remembered evenings in the Barking Fox just down the road from the camp sampling the Tolly Cobbold, the passing of which is hardly much lamented !!!

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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If only ah , yeah post up your pics , I'd like to see them ;)
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Johnboy wrote:If only ah , yeah post up your pics , I'd like to see them ;)

I'll have to have a dig around to see what's survived and not faded away.

Probably start a new Thread if I find anything, feeling bad about the hijacking of Ian's excellent Thread.

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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True
Sorry for the hijack Ian :oops:
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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No snags, Johnboy I started it!

I've some pictures of F-4s being broken up on the Wattisham dump somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.

Nige, the Barking Fox is a Chinese restaurant now, more Tsing Tao than Tolly Cobbold these days!

Cheers

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Found some, FGR2 (F-4M) being broken up for scrap on the Wattisham dump, an F-4J undergoing maintenance in 2 Hangar, the Hangar shot is of the FG1s (ex Royal Navy F-4K) we had in store in 1 Hangar for a while.

cheers Ian
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Phantom FGR2 being broken up for scrap - 1992
Phantom FGR2 being broken up for scrap - 1992
Phantom F-4J - 2 Hangar RAF Wattisham - 1990
Phantom F-4J - 2 Hangar RAF Wattisham - 1990
Phantom FGR1s in store - 1 Hangar RAF Wattisham 1991
Phantom FGR1s in store - 1 Hangar RAF Wattisham 1991
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Wow , seems such a shame , but I guess it's progress with upgrading to better planes. But sad we're not aloud to fly them like the lightning and harrier for displays :( of which all are harriers are sitting in Arizona :evil:
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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

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Thanks for the pics and the stories Ian, when I have a few mins I'll see if I can find any.

Barking Fox ale to Flying Fox soup eh ! Shame really, except for the Tolly Cobbold bit !

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Re: 30 years of Alfas, well almost!

Post by Bluesuit »

The real shame was that the FGR2s had all been re-lifed and upgraded in 1992 to keep them going another 20 years, but defence comes at a price, today's RAF is 1/3rd the size it was then.
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