Allegro Club International

[Richard Howe]

Those who are on Facebook may have seen that I recently was introduced to a local car that had been off-road for close to 5 years. One lady owner since leaving the dealership (where it was a demo), it's a Series 1 Vanden Plas 1500 Auto in Brazil, with Tuscan leather. Having apparently traveled over 100k, the gearbox gave out in 2008 and was reconditioned at great cost - only for the owner to die a few months later. With the estate in mothballs, the car has been kept charged & free, but has otherwise gone unused ever since.

With such a similar story & in such similar condition to Rolf my estate, I fell in love immediately & decided I had to have it... But this was a month ago, and I was preparing for Belgium. As such, it was agreed that the car remain in its protective garage until after the trip. A deposit was handed over, a deal struck, and off I went!

Yesterday came time to collect, and as I knew the car to be a runner I took the option of taking it straight for an MoT in order to save having to pay for recovery. It drove well, and aside from a light clonk when passing over speedbumps (which I attributed at least in part to the suspension's deflation) it was incident free. I parked it up at the garage, and went home.

Today I got the dreaded phone-call:
All it needs is a rear brake cylinder, and a tracking rod. It'll be home tomorrow, and then I'll tax it from the beginning of June.
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[Andrew Mallett]

Brazil was only available for 8 months on Series 1's. Feb 1975 till end of Series 1 production in Oct 1975. When was this one registered Richard?.... Was Brazil carried over to Series 2's?.....More pictures please.
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Bloke from Norfolk.

[Richard Howe]

The former keeper acquired the car in June 75. I have the older V5 which should have first registration on it, but I don't have it here to double-check.

I love having 2 Brazil cars, I love the depth of the metallic brown; it's something you really haven't seen since the 70s until very recently.
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[Richard Howe]

It's come home today! Track rod ends & rear brake cylinders were all it needed for the MoT, although fixing the tracking added to the garage time - they needed to repair their system, and while doing that the owner had family issues. I don't mind, they do my work really cheaply

Pictures to come!
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.