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Anyone for an Austin Apache, Anadol A1 or AMC Eagle?


Sam Glover

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Anadol info shamelessly coped and pasted from the Scimitar Owners' Club forum...

 

It was built at Istanbul factory in July 1968. It was registered in the UK in February 1969 as a 'Reliant' Anadol, presumably by Reliant itself (note Staffordshire registration).

 
It remained in the ownership of Reliant designer David Page until his death. It was bought from his brother, Peter Page, a few years before it came into my possession.
 
My best theory is that it was imported by Reliant as a press/demonstration vehicle. A sister car – SRE 937G – was imported and registered at the same time and popped up in Autocar in December 1968. This car still exists, but in heavily-pimped form with a Crossflow engine and various bits of extra bodywork.
 
The A1’s in decent unmolested condition by Anadol standards. Most Turkish A1s have been through several cycles of being driven to the point of collapse and patched up. 
 
The body’s not bad. I haven’t inspected the chassis that closely, but I suspect it’s not bad either. It’s been off the road for several decades, so it’ll need a complete mechanical overhaul.
 
The most obvious problem is that one of the Mr Pages cut holes in the rear of the body to (badly) fit larger rear lights. I have two original corner sections that I hacksawed from a scrap shell in Ankara, which could be grafted in or used to make moulds for repair sections.
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Apache…

 
There’s a bit of history here: http://www.mginfo.co.uk/leyland/?q=node/71
 
It’s been resprayed black quite badly and the suspension’s deflated on one side (a ruptured pipe at the rear, I believe). Other than that, it’s really not bad. 
 
I bought it about five years ago from my friend Bearded Tony, who’d been Fritzlling it in a lock-up in London for about a decade.
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Eagle…
 

 

I begged a local hoarder to palm this off on me about a year ago. It was running and driving nicely about 20 years ago, apparently, when it failed an MoT on driveshaft boots and he parked it in his damp barn. It looks as though it’s been parked in a damp barn for 20 years. It’s stained and mouldy, but solid and complete. It’s a gutless manly straight-six not a gutless ladies’-coffee-morning straight-four.
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Apaches are such a "WTF, BL" thing - they look smart, well able to make it into the very early 80s with minimal finessing, perfect as a low-end repmobile with a big boot when Chevettes & Vivas were still RWD, bouncy things - but instead we get twee ADO 16s and the Allegro.

 

Like, WTF, BL.

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Not sure I'd be brave enough to throw £1500 at an Eagle that's been lurking in a barn for 20 years, but it sounds like a bargain for the Apache if it's as solid as it looks.

 

Ha! Well that’s something. I’ve proven to myself that I am brave enough to throw £1500 at an Eagle that’s been luring in a barn for 20 years. Thus I win. Hang on…

 

 

Yes – the Apache is as solid as it looks.

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When I was last in the states, I did look for Eagles both to buy, and on the road in general - and I think being on the west coast meant Subaru had already hit the market quite well (Portland is Subaru-Central) - but the few Eagles I found for sale generally were holding their money in general and are now quite rare - numbers have thinned in the past 3 years, I think, but popularity of them in the rust belt doesn't help compared to other AMC machinery that found homes down south.

 

So saving one is definitely worthy, and they are the first crossover - if nothing else because Subaru still made you shift into 4x4 on loose surfaces only, and didn't have the ground clearance.

 

As a guideline, from memory you're looking at $6000 for a usable, complete Eagle these days - and this is the same sort of time I was seeing Buick Reatta convertibles for $1500-2000; the Reatta being another oddball that is definitely, absolutely worth saving (particularly as Buick is going to end up irrelevant to the US market but dominant in China, and thus will lose any vestige of cool it once had). For someone with the skills it's probably worth the £1500 if they really want an AMC Eagle.

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Austin Apache.  It really is impossible to guess what's going to emerge next from the Glover Collection.

Actually it's quite easy, just pick something as obscure and unloved as possible, it'll probably be that.

 

I do quite like the Apache, it's like a Dolomite that isn't a Dolomite but appeals to me due to it's Dolomiteness. Good thing I'm currently financially ruined as I really don't have room for it.

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