Sundowners

[Colin Davidson]

Where ???

[kit carr]

kabul gorge?

[Colin Davidson]

Kit, I agree, its the Kabul Gorge. Do you remember any of these old coaches from your days at Sundowners???

[kit carr]

No, prior to my time.

These days they look kind of retro cool though.

(still wooden pommy buses though)

[SIMON ARMS]

It does look "retro cool" in this photo. This one is a Bedford isn't it?

There are photos of Clap with the old Ford that I ended up with in South America in February 1976 so it must have been close Kit.

That old Ford, while I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw it (and I had conducted the first twenty days of my first 84 day South American tour through Brasil from Rio to Brazilia and down to San Paulo with 30 punters by public transport so I was pleased to see something) it turned out to quite, even very relaible (but very under powered). The drive train was basic and the main area of concern was the main spring leaf, they were after all designed to travel on English roads not what we put them through.

[kit carr]

It's hard to compare what we did with modern gear. The closest in power were the Volvos, with then an enormous 250hp.

The Fords had 130bhp, and the Bedfords had less.

Nothing today short of 330 bhp, and a whole lot more torque.