Hi Richard,
from my own (Ant and Wireless Ant) experience I can assure you the Meadows 4ELA engine produced a lot of torque and the gearing was certainly low enough. You would be in top gear at 15mph and could pretty much stay there all day if you wanted, regardless of the hills.
The unfairly maligned cable brakes were Bendix "duo-servo"; the lead shoe energized the trailing shoe. If they were set up correctly, and then adjusted regularly, they were very good. I had an old chap advise me on setting up the brakes on my Ant and on the first test "panic stop" the passenger's face almost hit the windscreen. Even when towing two trailers she pulled up very well. And I never had any issues with leaking master or wheel cylinders, nor did she ever pull to one side.
Cheers,
Dave
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