I seem to recall my uni friends and I had an old Ford Prefect/Popular/Thames van in about 1966. It was a £25 heap with fablon sides keeping the rust together. Would ths have had the 100E engine? It certainly did not last too long..
All I know is that it struggled,to keep up with a friends Morris Minor Van, that had more gears and more Horsepower ? The other issue but don’t know if true, did the wipers work off some air system and slowed down to a stop as you accelerated..lIt made racing the Morris van always tricky.
Best MM
PS We used to race to various places but one was popular - Studley women’s farm sec (retary) college. Think it’s a Warners Hotel now. Happy days….
PPS used to buy cars through brokers but the Volvo came via a big multi Dealership. Hated all the suits, finance director nonsense, Nespresso and crèche but I did get a stonkingly good deal. Never went back but they have now bought my local Volvo dealers premises/business
The situp and beg Ford Pop had a basic 1172cc side valve E93A engine. Later versions with lower profile body used a 100E engine. This latter development, although still side valve and same capacity, had adjustable tappets (earlier version amazingly didn't), better bearings and sported an integral water pump, E93A relying on thermo-siphon cooling. Both had a bleed of inlet manifold pressure with the resultant vacuum (when available on light throttle) stored in a tank which in turn drove the matching wiper motor - an infamous system when ascending a hill in heavy rain when blades slowed to a stop.
