An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Hi, I’ve recently bought a Rosso red series 2 4 door super after many years of looking and wanting and starting to think I’d left it too late.

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Back in late 1979/ early 1980 my mum fell pregnant with me. My dad decided it would be a good idea to sell his mini and buy something a bit more practical. This turned out to be a pea green alfasud 1.2. The first vehicle I ever travelled in.

This was replaced by a black one a couple of years later
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Which was written off some time in 1983 by a ford transit which couldn’t decide which side of the road to drive on.

It was replaced with an orange 5m
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Which was replaced by a black s3
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And then an ivory gold cloverleaf, followed by a C-reg and then an F-reg 33s. The last boxer in the family was an N-reg 146 1.6.

I’ve always like the suds, and been keeping an eye out for something for many years but have watched the numbers dwindle and prices rise. Along with too many other projects on the go.

I recently realised I’d kind of fallen out of love with interesting cars. I like our daily drivers, but all the ongoing projects have spent too long left abandoned, and just when I was thinking of buying something complete, running and a little unusual my sud popped up, and even the other half encouraged me to go for it.

Contact was made, a deal was struck and plans were hatched to travel almost the entire width of the country from Suffolk to Cornwall to pick it up.

The journey home in something completely unknown and 40 years old was interesting but thankfully pretty uneventful!

It’s a 1980 build car, supplied in the uk, zeibarted from new than shipped to Malta where it lived for a couple of years before coming back to the uk In 1982 ( hence the Y-reg ) and spending most of its life as the original owners runaround in south london.

I’d say the car is a 20 footer, it’s been painted and is reasonably tidy, but isn’t a pampered show car, which honestly is exactly what I want. I want to be able to use it for everyday stuff as well as meets and events without worrying too much about it.

Other than the paint and a set of Ti extra gauges on the dash it’s completely original. I have had to give in and fitted an early 80s radio with some matching rear shelf speakers to make the boring bits of my 30 mile commute less boring.

Ive refitted the original square rear number plate, rewired the offside rear cluster to put an led fog light into the reverse light position and lose the ugly dangling rear fog. Changed some minor service items, fitted electronic ignition and a dedicated relayed supply to the headlights which has transformed them from awful to acceptable.

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And next to my mums current Giulietta Multiair Super
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Although totally new to suds ( I was around 8 when my dad got rid of his last one! ) I’m a total car nerd and I expect there will be lots of, hopefully not too daft, questions. So hopefully people on here won’t mind sharing some of their knowledge.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

alfadave
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Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:57 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by alfadave »

Daft question from me!

Please give me more info on your dedicated, relayed headlight supply.

I use my S2 daily, and the one candle power headlights are useless. Words of one syllable please, I'm useless at electrics.

Nice looking car. How did your dad keep the rust at bay on his?

Veesix75
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Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:37 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Veesix75 »

That's lovely, I've grown to like the 4 door Sud's, I bet the cabin space is similar to the Giulietta inside, but the size difference is immense outside.

And an Estoril e36 M3 showing it's rear end ?

alfadave
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Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:57 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by alfadave »

I thought it was a Scooby?

Crank
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:07 am
Location: Penarth

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Crank »

I thought it was a Peugeot 405 !
1976 1.5Ti
1977 1.2Ti
1989 1.7 Sprint Veloce
1989 75TS
2003 147 2.0TS Lusso
2004 MX5 1.8S
2002 1.6 Focus LX

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LooLooSud33Spider
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Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:14 pm
Location: Staffordshire

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by LooLooSud33Spider »

I thought it was a wheelie bin
Alfasud Ti 1984
Alfa Spider 2.0 Ts 916
Alfa Spider 20v Turbo

Kegsti66
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Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2014 7:20 pm
Location: Northamptonshire

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Kegsti66 »

Fantastic story Harry, and some great photos.
It is clear your family have a long love for Alfas.
Cracking looking Sud you have there, enjoy the ride.

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Thanks all for the welcome.

The car in the background, the first guess was correct. A 1996 m3 evo saloon, with the adjustable aero kit bmw hastily homologated in 1994 to try and catch those pesky Alfa 155 silverstones in the btcc :lol:
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And yes, I was amazed how spacious the sud is, certainly plenty of head and leg room and I’m 6ft, it’s only really width it struggles a little with, and the pedal layout takes a little adjustment when you’re switching between cars.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

alfadave wrote:
Tue Oct 27, 2020 3:49 pm
Daft question from me!

Please give me more info on your dedicated, relayed headlight supply.

I use my S2 daily, and the one candle power headlights are useless. Words of one syllable please, I'm useless at electrics.
I’m no expert so apologies to anyone if my terminology isn’t 100% correct.

On old cars the power feed comes from the engine bay, through the column stalks or switch, is distributed around the dash and out to the headlights, my Lancia was the same, as was our Mk2 golf, both of which were massively improved.

The idea is you use a 4 pin relay, run a power feed to it straight from the battery, use the original signal from the column stalk to switch the relay, then send the power out from the relay to the headlight bulbs.

I fitted a relay on a bracket on the fuse box, and used as much of the existing wiring in that area to keep everything neat and tidy. I’ve only done the dip beam so far and haven’t fully wrapped it into the loom so can take some photos at some point if it might be of any use?

With the original setup I had 13.5v at the battery at idle but only 10.2v at the bulb holder. I can’t remember off the top of my head what it is now but pretty sure there’s less than 0.5v drop 0.3 rings a bell.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

alfadave
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by alfadave »

Thanks, I understand the theory......will try to put it into practice!

NEG
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by NEG »

Really nice Sub, don’t see many of those around.

I did the relay conversion on my Fiat x1/9 it makes a huge difference.

This is a video from an American kit supplier but you should get the gist....the only thing I’d do different to the video is use 4 relays and not jumper the 12v from one headlight to the other

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

A couple of other bits and pieces I’ve done.

As said earlier, I really wanted a radio for the more boring bits of the commute, the car hadn’t ever had one so I was toying with the idea of a completely hidden setup. However none of the existing openings were big enough to be able to fit a stereo behind and be able to operate it comfortably. The glovebox too shallow even for a modern half depth headunit.

Not wanting to cut any holes I went looking for the most modern stereo I could find which used the separate faceplate through mount system. I ended up with an audioline unit with funky graphic equaliser. Complete with box, instructions and loom.

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And a set of matching audioline rear shelf speakers, which were about the smallest and most subtle shelf speakers I could find which wouldn’t need recessing into the shelf.

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Turns out they’re both 1983 vintage which is a little annoying, but will do for now.

Decided I’d try and do something about the faded and virtually unreadable pillar badges,
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Not willing to spend £90 on a set I thought I’d try and make my own from some silver and some black textured vinyl. I’m pretty pleased for a first attempt, from a few paces they look pretty good I think.
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Love this little key ring bought off eBay, very close match to my car!
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Gave the boot a wipe Down to remove some of the decades of dust
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And noticed that whoever was in charge of fitting the sound deadening pads in there obviously got bored, went to lunch, went on strike and just slapped the one destined for the left hand arch tub into the spare wheel well :lol:
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Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Crank
Posts: 133
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Location: Penarth

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Crank »

Home made pillar stickers look good and you still have the original tool kit !
1976 1.5Ti
1977 1.2Ti
1989 1.7 Sprint Veloce
1989 75TS
2003 147 2.0TS Lusso
2004 MX5 1.8S
2002 1.6 Focus LX

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Yes, still got the tool kit and the wooden screwdriver handle is so clean it doesn’t look like it’s ever been used in anger.

I am missing the handle for the jack though, not managed to fine one yet.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

NEG
Posts: 306
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:30 am

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by NEG »

Good god man get it out of the rain! :D

Harry_p
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Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Unfortunately it’s spent most of winter under a cover, getting the odd run whenever conditions allowed, I.e dry after a wet spell which had washed the salt away.

It disgraced itself at work a few weeks ago when it didn’t want to start to go home, tracked it down to no / poor feed to the coil, so hot wired it directly to the battery and it fired straight into life. I now carry a spare bit of wire in the car.

Traced it to the ignition switch, you could get the lights to flicker by wiggling the key vertically. Gave it a good flush out with contact cleaner and hasn’t been a problem since. Wonder if it had been failing for a while as it was taking an awful lot of cranking before it would fire, I’d put it down to fuel draining back to the tank when it had been sat a while and taking a long while to refill the carb.

Then the other week the clutch started slipping, didn’t feel like a normal slip, if you floored it the revs would rise 500rpm then it would grip and be fine. Past experience has shown that when they start to slip the revs will keep rising until you lift off and allow it to grip.

Bit the bullet and decided to stick a new clutch in over the long bank holiday weekend.

Never a fun job, and it’s a surprisingly heavy lump given the modest power it has to cope with especially with callipers attached.

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Of course it would be rude not to do a bit of ‘while you’re there’ stuff so I replaced the main bush which hangs the gearbox from the front bulkhead as a spare came with the car. Was a sod to get in so used the hose clip to squeeze it while pushing it in trick.

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This tail shaft mounts to the back of the gearbox and holds the gear shift linkage, I knew the bush was completely knackered and you could feel the gear lever bouncing up and down as you came on and off throttle.

I modified a poly bush we use at work which usually end up in the bin, made it a cotton reel shape to sit snug inside the remains of the old rubber bush. Also cleaned up and painted the tail shaft to tidy it up a bit.
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All in and working nicely, gear change vastly improved.

Then this weekend did the work I had originally planned the the BH. Flush out the cooling system and fit a new radiator as the old one was looking a little scruffy at the bottom corners and would rather catch it before it went.

Water which came out was pretty grotty
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I know it’s not the tidiest up close, but does photograph well and with some proper tlc is starting to look better and better.

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Still very much enjoying it, will have to keep an eye on the mileage over summer or up it on my insurance.

Next jobs are front suspension arm bushes as they look pretty grotty and the timing belts just so I know they’re fresh and there won’t be any niggles about them in the back of my head.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

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KevJTD
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by KevJTD »

Love that last pic, peeking at the Sud through the shed doorway 8-)
Giulietta JTD 170
Lancia Delta integrale
Lancia Flavia coupe 1.8 1963
Lancia Dedra turbo
Renault Clio 197 RS

I'm bad with people things
But I should have tried more

alfadave
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by alfadave »

Interesting mod on the tail shaft bush. Never thought it would improve the gear shift
Mine is in a similar poor state.

The original ones seem to be obsolete now, so I may try your mod........

junior
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by junior »

That looks smashing. Well done on all your tasks and thanks for posting as missing my normal Italian car experience.

:D

Gary Orchard
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Gary Orchard »

The tail shaft bush was never a tight fit on the bar even when new.
When I worked for a dealer back in the day the way to set it was to adjust the height of the engine/gearbox on the top gearbox mount until the top of the bush sits on the bar
Also very important to the gear change quality is the bush with the metal sleeve where the lever pivots - make sure the metal sleeve is not seized and give it a good grease up

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LooLooSud33Spider
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Location: Staffordshire

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by LooLooSud33Spider »

Gary is quite correct. The tail housing bush should be a loose fit on the cross mtg bar. When the engine and gearbox are set at the correct height that rear bush should be under little to no load. You should be able to wiggle the tail housing side to side quite freely
If it’s hard pressed against the body or mtg then you can get a vibration and the car will possibly torque steer as it means the engine and trans height is incorrect
The attached photo should help explainify it .
A6D9C409-1957-47C0-BE4E-5F652441AE81.jpeg
Any further questions just ask

Lou
Alfasud Ti 1984
Alfa Spider 2.0 Ts 916
Alfa Spider 20v Turbo

Harry_p
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Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Thank you, very useful. I wasn’t really sure how to set it up so just did it so it looked and felt right. I’d assumed by the size of the hanger bolt that the main hanger bush took the majority of the load. The old one was in a poor state with the weight on it but looked fine when removed.

The rear bush is still very soft even with the insert, I’ve not noticed any increase in vibration but definitely get a lot less movement in the gearstick.

I don’t have anything else to compare it to, I’ve not been in another sud since I was about 7, almost 35 years ago!
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Used it for the commute again today, 250 miles done this week in the sunshine.

Anyone else constantly get people in modern cars pulling out in front of you? I’m assuming either because they misjudge the distance because it’s so small compared to modern stuff or because they assume it’s old so will be slow despite merrily buzzing along at the same speed as everyone else. But I get it way more in the sud than anything else I drive.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Might have to adjust the mileage allowance on my insurance, used it 4 out of 5 days commuting last week and another 60 miles today. Done 2500 miles in it since September despite barely using it over winter.

For some reason if blew the indicator fuse the other day, luckily I had a spare in the car but it’s spurred me on to swapping to a modern blade fuse box, just need to make a couple of little brackets to attach it to the inner wing.

Image
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Veesix75
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Veesix75 »

That looks lovely :D

NEG
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Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by NEG »

It looks...Super! Great work!

Kegsti66
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Location: Northamptonshire

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Kegsti66 »

Yes, she sure looks sweet and it is great that you have got out in her so much. :mrgreen:

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Fuse box swap done, of course very easy to swap back to original if needed. Annoyed that I didn’t use a 10 way box to add the two fuses in the little black box beside the main board, but never mind.

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Everything tested and working, and used for my 6am start commute this morning.
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

Crank
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:07 am
Location: Penarth

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Crank »

Now thats a sensible upgrade which I plan to copy. Did you get the fuse box off ebay?
1976 1.5Ti
1977 1.2Ti
1989 1.7 Sprint Veloce
1989 75TS
2003 147 2.0TS Lusso
2004 MX5 1.8S
2002 1.6 Focus LX

Harry_p
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:34 pm

Re: An introduction and my 1980 1.5 super

Post by Harry_p »

Yeah, just a generic one. It was actually off Amazon as I wanted it quickly and you’re never quite sure whether eBay ones are coming from the uk or China, but it was less than £10

Bracket was just fashioned from a couple of bits of aluminium angle section I had laying around, etch primed and sprayed satin black.

The only slightly tricky bit was the original fuse box has a few points linked together, I couldn’t see an easy way to add them to the new fuse box so made some little adapters to plug into the wires before the fuse box.

Seems to have improved the glowing battery light under high load too, I had heater, heated rear screen, headlights and wipers all running and couldn’t see any glow, although it was just starting to get light so maybe I just couldn’t see it!
Italian: ‘69 fiat 850 saloon, ‘80 alfasud super, 2012 Mito multiair 135
German: ‘72 VW dormobile camper, ‘87 Mk2 GTi 8v, ‘89 e30 m3, ‘96 e36 m3 evo saloon, ‘98 e36 318ti compact sport, ‘06 merc clk350
British: ‘94 metro gti 1.8, ‘91 metro 1.1c

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