The radiator is the size of a postage stamp.
I had a '59 Triumph sports car when I was in college in Arizona.
Took a long weekend Memorial Day trip across the desert to California with my girlfriend.
Spent most of the weekend at a gas station in Desert Center because we couldn't keep the car running before the water in the radiator would boil out.
Blew a head gasket as a result and had to have it towed back to Phoenix.
The mechanic told me the British didn't design the cooling system for the heat in the desert southwest.
After that experience, I carried two of those old canvas water bags hanging off the trunk rack to keep water handy. And I didn't take anymore long trips in that car.
Seems the British naval destroyers are not their only creation that doesn't do well in warmer conditions.
Seems I read years ago about a "heat wave" of temps over 80°F in England and people dropping dead.
Of course, with their new invasion, the heat issue is not a problem anymore.
“...The mechanic told me the British didn’t design the cooling system for the heat in the desert southwest.
...
Seems the British naval destroyers are not their only creation that doesn’t do well in warmer conditions. …”
Some of their automotive systems haven’t done so well in cooler conditions either.
During the early-to-mid 1970s, I was a cadet at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We were allowed to own cars only during our final (First Class) year. Cadets who bought MGs, Triumphs, or anything Italian were afflicted with endless startup trouble any time the overnight temperature dipped into the low 30s F. More precisely, their auto would start, but refuse to keep running until some ten to fifteen minutes of warmup idling had transpired.
In fairness, it was a time of severe upheaval in the automotive industry: safety systems, emission controls, the First Oil Shock, inflation, wild swings in currency exchange ratios, skyrocketing costs all made life difficult for automakers - and cadets trying to pay for newer models.
I stepped away from the herd to purchase a Saab 99 from my hometown dealer (400 ft above sea level); after climbing to 7280 ft above sea level, it refused to run until I had it tuned up.
All was well until February; my roommate talked me into swapping cars for the weekend, so he & four buddies could make a ski trip. Through operator error, they damaged one set of axle boots; I drove his Triumph Spitfire, which came down with inexplicable malfunctions in the slush & snow around C Springs. After we paid the repair bills, he owed me about $70.00 more than I owed him. That Spitfire was - sadly - an all-too-typical example of lackluster British engineering and indifferent workmanship of the time.
Three months later, I had to rescue another roommate, who’d bought himself a FIAT X1/9: hot performer, but no room for luggage larger than a briefcase. Breakdowns left him at the side of the road twice, before we graduated.