Hi all,
About to take the plunge and go for an ex dutch army seies3 lightweight with 2.25 diesel. This beauty is as mint as they come I suppose having been in dry storage and heavily waxed for over 20 yrs. I intend to drive to southern Italy where we have a small place. Hopefully it will be my little workhorse in my retirement taking me to my walks in the mountains nearby and helping me with the small l olive grove that I look after for the owner.

Few questions.
1. Will it make the 1700mile journey from Liverpool. I normally do it in three days comfortably in my car but suppose it is going to be a hard long drive.
2. Does it matter maintenence wise it being all 24v version. I.e more expensive to maintain?
3. This was released by MOD this June so will technically be 1sr owner with 48k miles after being in storage for many years. I keep asking myself, why on earth would the MOD keep used vehicles in storage for so long? Any can make sense of that?
4. Finally and most importantly, are there any major problems to look foward to? Someone elsewhere mentioned oil leaks and heavy use apart from possible props haft problems with early cast versions.

Appreciate some deeper info.

Francis

Are you buying it from Witham? They have a last batch of Dutch S3 lightweights. Assuming it is very well serviced it should make it but it depends on when it was last used (not recently I suspect). By well serviced I mean every the transmission fluids, oil seals, wheel bearings as well as the engine, ignition, carb, steering etc.

The S3 diesel is a Smokey old lump which will chugg along at 40-50mph. Without free wheeling hub's even in 2 wheel drive there's a lot of drag and movement in the front drive system. Not a good set up.

It'll take you two to three times longer to get there. The chance of a breakdown is high. Unless you know the vehicle inside out personally I think it's unwise. If you have a breakdown in bum **** nowhere you could be stuck waiting for parts etc. I'm starting to investigate N Italy for a place and if I ever do this I'd ship the landy there on a trailer.