Allegro Torque Settings

Jack always drove an Austin Allegro estate as a sort of antithesis to the idea that detectives have to drive distinctive and usually elegant cars. The Austin Allegro was the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time, although to be fair it wasn't quite as bad as people thought it was, despite having a better drag coefficient in reverse and weak unitary body and chassis construction - the body would flex alarmingly when you jacked it up in the wrong place, even to the point of popping out the rear screen.

More serious was the possible loss of a rear wheel if the wheel bearings were not done up in the proscribed manner. To be honest this was not strictly Leyland's problem although they might have eradicated the danger by having a more foolproof method of attachment rather than the 'nip up and back off' technique listed here.

This postcard was made up by me; the vehicles were never recalled as there was nothing actually wrong with them - later models had a placard in the greasecap warning the engineer to read the instructions in the manual. To pursue the holy grail of authenticity which my books have not become known, I copied verbatim the procedure as laid down in the Allegro Owners Handbook, of which I have a copy - ah, the wonders of eBay!

B/W postcard, unnumbered, given out on UK tour for The Big Over Easy July 2005. 500 editions.