My first Hillman Avenger in 1998

[Avenger414]

Hello friends this was my first Hillman Avenger when i was 18 years old,this is the first car i drove and it was my father's

[JoKer]

1980 was a good year! (my 1st Avenger was 1997 when I was 17)

[avenga]

My first Avenger was 1980 Avenger. It was around the same date and age as JoKer.

[Avenger414]

yes im 33 and when i was 17 my father had this car and he gave it to me and i did 1 year working on it until i brought the licence at 18 the 1 think that haven't oringinal this avenger was the engine because my father changed it and put a 13cc morris marina because he said it was more economic then the original but i loved this car

[blekkja]

That is a bit weird: though the A-series is definitely one of the better motors ever produced so I guess he could have done worse.

[Avenger414]

Yes maybe but I was young and I couldn't do nothing lol.but I can tell you for sure that the morris marina 13cc was more economical but as I said I couldn't do nothing it was his car before

[oldschool]

That is a bit weird: though the A-series is definitely one of the better motors ever produced so I guess he could have done worse.

You can't be serious suggesting an A series motor is better than an Avenger one?!
It was only produced for so long because BL couldn't afford to replace it...lol
Back in the day 1300 Avengers would to eat 1300 Marinas and Minis for breakfast!
They broke crankshafts regularly when racing as only 3 main bearings compared to 5 on the Avenger motor.

[blekkja]

Not better, but still a solid little motor. I spent a lot of time zipping around my old man's Morrie Grinder and learnt to drive in a Mini Clubman. Our "good" mini had an 1100 hillclimb motor in it and you couldn't drive that thing slower than 80kph. Even my old lady's 850 had enough pep. A bit gutless when installed in a larger/heavier car such as a Marina (thankfully mine has a 4k instead) or even an Avenger I'd think though. I had a 1300 Chrysler Avenger at one stage and it was real nice for city driving. Much nicer than my brother's 10cwt Ute.

[Paddy75]

Its sorta true that the BMC A-Series was more economical than the Avenger engine as I've heard a mechanic say. Probably due to the way the Avenger engine was designed with emissions in mind as Chrysler thought they were going to sell hundreds of thousands of Crickets in the States.
The huge combustion chamber in the Avenger engine was so that there would be minimal squish to reduce H.Carbon output and so the Avenger engine in low compression form could meet the California 1970 regulations without the need for an air-pump.

Today we all pretty well know that fuel droplet size and a strong spark really improves an Avenger engines efficiency, due to the lack of squish in the combustion chamber.

The one thing Leyland Marinas or Allegros had over an Avenger was that they were relatively easy on the juice because of the high rate of squish the BMC units had (look at the shape of the sand cast chamber on a Mini head.) Yes, sand cast so the uneven pressures between cylinders caused.... You know! Crack!

MK1 Avengers had a bit of a fuel drinking rep' at the time which no doubt hit the sales, although it was the 1250cc with its 4.4 diff which was giving only 23mpg overall while the 1500cc was giving a more respectable 30-35 mpg.

NZ didn't have the 1250 so I guess Zealanders didn't hear of the Avenger being hard on fuel, so you guys bought more of them compared to the UK, Ireland or indeed Malta.
Although the Avenger had a better penetration in Ireland against Marinas and Vivas, very likely because a Marina or Viva was a dangerous banana of a car on our buck-shee roads. Just a pity that Irish people are not exactly known for being diligent with car maintenance! (..wah?..change the oil? Sure she'd only get used to it!...whats that noise there Pat Joe?...Ach driver her 'an so..)

I see on the 'Avenger 24,000 miles report' Article that Motor magazine surveyed Avenger owners about satisfaction. While the reliability and handling scores were high, around 60% of the sample said they would not have bought another Avenger.

The thing is, about 60% of the people surveyed had bought a 1250cc!

By the time of the 2-door launch Auto Car mag' was comparing a 1500cc Avenger to a Marina or Escort 1300cc and highly recommended a 1500cc Ave over the others. In my daft opinion a 2-door 1500cc MK1 Avenger ticks all the boxes - just add a 3.7 diff!

For sure though the Ave engine is very strong compared to a 3-bearing 1940's engine.

As I heard a guy recently say about the Ave engine, they had a rock solid near indestructible bottom end.

''..all you had to do was put a camshaft and a set of CD175's on them and they just went like a hammer..'' So said a man that used to rally Avengers and put 220,000 miles on a road MK1 1600 lubed with Duckhams Q.

An advert from the 1971 24,000 mile report magazine:


''...And to make us wonder...consumption with a 1250 Super instead of a 1500..''
Oh worse, much worse!

Long term figures for the 1500, this was a 1970 1500GL so also would have been the CDS fixed needle carbie (which they found was tuned too lean after a service!)

Looking pretty good and with a torquey engine the testers were happy.

A 1250 however..

What!!! Was harder on fuel than an Escort! Now that really should have gotten the alarm bells ringing at Chrysler UK.
The Escort 1300 had a 3.9 diff, 1250 Avenger a 4.4 but the acceleration wasn't better.
The 1250 engine was a mistake. Rootes/Chrysler designed a car with an optimized body weight with good handling, but they threw the hard work away with the 1250. Oh the British car industry, there always was a dumb mistake made.

Remember these? The sun visor radio antennas.


The Series 4-on 1300 likely cured the underpowered problem the 1250 had but it took another year before they finally started to gear up the smaller engine Avenger as the Series 5 1300's got a 4.1 diff and Chrysler were then claiming 36mpg for the 1300.
I usually get about 28-32 mpg on my 4.1 diffed 1300 which is painful compared to the 47-50mpg my diesel Citroen returns but that's no comparison of course.

A comparison of consumption Avenger vs Marina vs Viva vs Fiat 124.

Poor old Viva there! Would have been the 1150 engine so it was the only underpowered car on the list.

Avenger414, if your Father replaced the 1250 engine in your first Avenger with a Marina 1275 engine he was right about it being easier ran than before (or did you mean he replaced the Avenger with a 1.3 Marina?)
But for sure if you gave the BMC 1.3 A-series a hard time it would not be long before the cylinders cracked between #2 & 3 (as happened me on a Metro I had) or the camshaft broke as Oldschool said.
Why didn't your Father replace the 1250 engine with a 1300 or 1500/1600? Well he would have also had to change the rear axle up to 3.9 or 3.7 to get the better consumption.

Sorry for the long meandering comment there lads! You got me on a day off work and the weather is crappy!