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Hi. As way of introduction.
I am in zimbabwe. (its in africa just north of south africa) and its full of sh-t at the moment.
I have just bought a 1986 SURF 2.4TD Ltd, 2LT engine. It is my second Surf.
Had the same make and model (excl the 'ltd' extras) about 10 years ago.
Then I was running projects in Mazabuka, Zambia then but based in zimbabwe, going up every week/2weeks. not any 4x4 work (apart from the state of the roads, if it had been a road car it would have lasted about a week) but a lot of mileage. +1400km per week (or 2 weeks), for 16 months. Incl 2 trips there and back in a day just to sign contracts (1460 km round trip).
Business in africa is different. forget about fax, email, telephone etc. If the guys are going to sign. then you have to have your face (and preferably body) infront of them.
I also did a lot of work on mines and irrigation projects in zim so there was a bit of 4x4 work.
And!
I did the zim challange rally (part of the africa rally championships) with that work Surf.. Not as a competitor but radioing the times back from the various check points. Also a week before we (navigator and myself) did the entire course distributing phamphlets telling the nation to " bassopo ! " there were going to be some very fast cars comming down their goat tracks the following weekend.
Anyway the point im getting to is that i did all that with the 'snow' bridgstones that were on the car when it was imported (second hand) from japan. I was told that these 'snow' tyres would not last on the heat of our roads, but i did about 80,000 kms before the first puncture.
Im going to mozambique via a little used southern border post, then through a lot of unknown (since the last cyclone) land. in august in company with an old land cruiser, new isuzu 4x4, and a nissan patrol.
Lets see who can handle it !
Ciao
Rogan
Zimsurf
electric@mango.zw
That Surf did about
I am in zimbabwe. (its in africa just north of south africa) and its full of sh-t at the moment.
I have just bought a 1986 SURF 2.4TD Ltd, 2LT engine. It is my second Surf.
Had the same make and model (excl the 'ltd' extras) about 10 years ago.
Then I was running projects in Mazabuka, Zambia then but based in zimbabwe, going up every week/2weeks. not any 4x4 work (apart from the state of the roads, if it had been a road car it would have lasted about a week) but a lot of mileage. +1400km per week (or 2 weeks), for 16 months. Incl 2 trips there and back in a day just to sign contracts (1460 km round trip).
Business in africa is different. forget about fax, email, telephone etc. If the guys are going to sign. then you have to have your face (and preferably body) infront of them.
I also did a lot of work on mines and irrigation projects in zim so there was a bit of 4x4 work.
And!
I did the zim challange rally (part of the africa rally championships) with that work Surf.. Not as a competitor but radioing the times back from the various check points. Also a week before we (navigator and myself) did the entire course distributing phamphlets telling the nation to " bassopo ! " there were going to be some very fast cars comming down their goat tracks the following weekend.
Anyway the point im getting to is that i did all that with the 'snow' bridgstones that were on the car when it was imported (second hand) from japan. I was told that these 'snow' tyres would not last on the heat of our roads, but i did about 80,000 kms before the first puncture.
Im going to mozambique via a little used southern border post, then through a lot of unknown (since the last cyclone) land. in august in company with an old land cruiser, new isuzu 4x4, and a nissan patrol.
Lets see who can handle it !
Ciao
Rogan
Zimsurf
electric@mango.zw
That Surf did about
mine had Bridgestone Winter duellers on when it came from Japan. They were a dual compound, the first layer being very soft, which wore down very quickly and squeeled like pigs on tarmac roads. The grip in the wet was very bad too (lots of rain in Manchester) I had to replace them before they were totaly worn out because they just didn't feel safe on the car.
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