ROAD TEST: VANDEN PLAS 1750

but in one of those fits of misplaced optimism which so often feature in BL corporate history, the decision was taken to go with an all-new design.

Initial sketches showed a kind of shrunken Princess, the wedgy styling translating wonderfully to a smaller car but then the BL compromises started creeping in. The car was originally to use the A-Series engine but it was then decreed that the new E-Series engine would be used. The overheadcam engine/gearbox assembly was significantly taller than the A-Series and so the bonnet line had to be raised, while the new heater assembly was also a bulky unit. Crash regulations were now stricter and engineers were also keen to give the Allegro classleading torsional rigidity by inflating the curves of the side panels. The whole car was then given added height to retain the proportions but by then the damage was done and the dumpy look was there to stay. Ironically, interviewed in 1973 Harry Webster claimed the Allegro to boast classleading torsional rigidity which was rather lost on owners who found the rear window popped out when a trolley jack was used in the wrong location.

Naturally, Hydragas was employed for the suspension, revised to offer a less bouncy ride than the ADO16 and the result was a spacious, comfortable small family car which on paper suffered significantly in market appeal only for its lack of a hatchback.

The British offshoot of coachbuilder Vanden Plas had been acquired by Austin in 1946 and as a BL subsidiary it had traditionally been responsible for large cars and limousines, but when boss Roland Fox produced a design exercise based on the BMC 1100 for display at the 1963 Motor Show, the positive reception was a surprise. Named Princess 1100, the car was put into production and proved to be a strong seller, chalking up a total of over 40,000 including the later 1300 model.

Clearly, that meant a handy number of buyers would be looking to replace their compact Vanden Plas cars with the newer model, but there was a very obvious problem. Pininfarina’s

Single-carb motor is good for 80bhp.

ADO16 had included a prominent front-end snout which lent itself well to being given a regal grille as part of the Vanden Plas treatment but the Allegro’s shape didn’t offer any such opportunity.

A second stumbling block was that cost constraints meant in the transition from Allegro to Vanden Plas the stylists were allowed to change just a single panel. Naturally, the bonnet pressing was the one chosen, gaining a raised centre section which permitted an upright front grille to be added. Said to have been inspired by the nose of the top-end Vanden Plas-badged Daimler, the grille was a streamlined interpretation of that on the older car and was inclined forwards slightly at the top end to give the Allegro a newfound thrust.

Similarly copying the Daimler were a pair of foglights positioned under the bumper, with Vanden Plas-branded

SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE 1485cc MAX POWER 80bhp at 5000pm MAX TORQUE 100lb.ft at 2600rpm 0-60 MPH 13.2secs MAX SPEED 94mph ECONOMY 25mpg LENGTH 3.9m

WIDTH 1.6m KERB WEIGHT 925kg hubcaps and a stick-on coachline.

Inside, it was a different matter, with the luxury interior being where the Vanden Plas craftsmen were free to give their skills free rein. The seats – or at least, the seating faces – were trimmed with the same Connolly hides used in the big VdP limousine and the Daimler, along with fold-down front and rear armrests. The rest of the seats were covered in Ambla – vinyl, in other words – but incredibly, the two materials seem to have stood the test of time and retain their colour match.

The dashboard may not have given quite the same ‘shrunken Silver Shadow’ effect as the ADO16, but a covering of walnut veneer gave the appropriate lift, paired with veneered door cappings. Showing unusual attention to hidden details for a product of the BL years, the headliner was also upgraded to a brushed nylon cloth, while the Evian carpets offer a deep pile and are apparently backed by ‘needle loom’ felt.

Other details included a reading light for each rear passenger, a fully carpeted boot, storage pockets in doors and seatbacks and the crowning glory: those fold-out picnic tables in the seatbacks.

In what must have been a constant source of irritation to BL’s production accountants, production of the luxury Allegros was a complicated affair involving untrimmed Allegros being driven to Vanden Plas’s Kingsbury factory in West London with the drivers sitting on ‘slave’ seats. This meant that each one had already covered 100 miles before it reached its owner, but on the plus side, it did mean that any mechanical faults would become obvious before delivery.

On arrival at Kingsbury, the cars were trimmed and finished, together with any rectification work which was needed. The Vanden Plas ADO16 models had been painted on the BL lines to a finish specified by VdP, but the Allegro didn’t get that special treatment; instead, the cars were meticulously buffed up, with no less than 12 inspectors employed on the Kingsbury line. That’s probably higher than the number employed on the main Longbridge lines and explains why the Allegro-based Vanden Plas cars were generally better prepared than the lesser models. It also explains why each car took two full days to evolve from Allegro to Vanden Plas.

Sadly, it also explains why in 1979 the Kingsbury works was deemed to be unviable and was earmarked for closure. Production of the DS420 limousine was moved to Jaguar, while the Vanden Plas 1500 and 1750 were finished on MG’s production line at Abingdon, where they took the place of Midget production which was by then winding down. The wood, the leather and the picnic tables were all still present, but inevitably the cars didn’t get quite the level of attention to detail they’d previously enjoyed. As we know, the Abingdon plant would be closed in October 1980, taking the Vanden Plas with it and there would be no biggrilled version of the Series 3 Allegro.

That makes our recently acquired project car you see here one of the very last, registered in August 1980 by which time production was already slowing down as Abingdon ground to a halt.

Powered by the 1750cc E-Series, it’s the absolute pinnacle of the Allegro range in its heyday and like so many of the Vanden Plas models it’s clearly been cherished, having been restored and painted at least once already.

Being old enough to have had schoolfriends who ran them as their first cars, I’m pretty familiar with the Allegro but I haven’t driven one for a couple of years. In fact, I’ve sampled more examples of the ADO16-based