I'll have two of those please.

My add-blocker blocks that one. Try this one.

The Austin Champs were powered by Rolls Royce, they were fully submersible & could drive totally under water with just the snorkel out.

Shaker - Yeah, you could do that - if you could keep those Champs going long enough, to drive under water!

Every Champ I ever saw, was laid up with a broken gearbox. The RR motor was the best part of them.

Archie Marshall, a local wheeler-and-dealer imported hundreds and hundreds of them in the 1970's, and a lot of local pastoralists and farmers snapped them up.

But they were the greatest POS ever built, they were so heavy, they'd bog on a bitumen road when it rained.
As soon as you tried gunning them out of a bog - BANG!, would go the gearbox!

Only time I see them now, is in ANZAC parades - and even then, the owners are driving them very gently!

There was a RR cut down and had a tow truck rig on the back that was running around the Sydney northern suburbs in the late 50s and early 60s.

" But they were the greatest POS ever built, they were so heavy, they'd bog on a bitumen road when it rained.
As soon as you tried gunning them out of a bog - BANG!, would go the gearbox!"
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We had a couple of them at the RAEME Recovery School at Bandiana when I was sent there during National Service.

The WO2 in charge told us a British Army General came to visit the base just before I arrived. They decided to drive him up to the top of the big hill behind the base so he could look over the entire Army complex that stretched for miles.

They got a Champ and just about spit polished it. He took one look it and refused to get in saying they were the worst vehicle the British Army had ever bought.

They had to quickly find their cleanest Land Rover to take him up.

They were very good though for learning to reverse the little number 5 box trailers. particularly when you tried changing up through the gears while going backwards. That forward/reverse lever was good fun.

The WA govt purchased them.

They had 5 fwd and 5 reverse gears. Just one lever to select forward or reverse and after that the gearbox had had the same ratios. Don’t actually know that to be the case but that’s how it seemed.

When young and very stupid in the 60’s we would have drag races in them on the clay pans in the Kimberley, in reverse. One minute you were 200m apart and the next a cm. You could do 80km/hr in reverse. It seemed fun at the time.

They could drive through deep water. Extend the streering column and stand on the seat. Absolutely useless as a work vehicle for us working out of town. Everyone preferred a Landrover so that tells you something.

Cheers John

Thanks for that Info Michael. I just cancelled my order. Don't want to be seen
as one of " those" people. :)
Dave.