1962 Motor Show

[supersuds]

The British Pathe newsreel company has put its entire collection on Youtube -- almost 82,000 videos. Haven't watched them all yet, but I loved this full color peek at the 1962 Earls Court Motor Show ---full of unfounded optimism about the future of the British car industry in the Common Market.

We had Triumph Spitfires and Mini-Coopers over here, but I never did see a Riley Elf....

 

[gizmo]

THANKS

I was always a fan of English cars....till French cars caught my eye.

I used to have a Morris 1100 (at the 40 second mark in the video) - those cutaway panels would have made working on the car easier, the 1100 was very cramped to work on and I remember fixing things by feel as I couldn't see my hands down in the car's innards. It was a great little car.

 

[firedome]

the Elf

was just a trimmed out BMC fwd sedan similar to the Morris or MG versions.

Should have kept the Wedgwood Blue '69 E-Type coupe we had 25 years ago, they were actually affordable back then, just used cars, and what fun to drive.

The Jensen had a 383 Chrysler V8, lot of motor for a fairly light car, as did the Bristol. Always wanted a 407 but never came across one.

 

[supersuds]

Think there was another version of the Riley Elf, badged Wolseley (Wombat? Can't think of the name).

Gizmo, were British cars assembled in Australia back then? I thought you had strict local content requirements.

 

[firedome]

Ya...

Wolseley was yet another BMC "badge engineered" marque.

 

[hydralique]

What a neat little film!

Two very significant cars feature in the film: the Lotus Elan and Ford Cortina. Both had just been introduced and both played big parts in the British industry for years. The Lotus was by most standards a very limited production car but for Lotus it established them as a real force in the world of fine sports cars, building on the success of the original Elite but being much more maintainable. The Cortina was one of the most successful cars in Britain for many years and made very handsome profits for Ford. There is a connection between the two as well: the Lotus twin-cam engine was based on a Ford block as used in the Cortina and Ford eventually produced a series of limited production Lotus-Cortinas with the twin-cam engine and upgraded suspension.

Towards the end of the film there is a cameo view of one exotic and cool rarity: the sixties Lagonda Rapide. Basically a four-door Aston-Martin DB4/5, it was created because David Brown, owner of Aston-Martin Lagonda, wanted a big plush four door to waft around or be chauffered in. It was stratospherically expensive and sold in tiny quantities but one of the perks of owning a car company is getting what you want.

The companion car to the Riley Elf was the Wolseley Hornet which shared most pressings and mechanical bits. Neither was a big seller but offered something for those who liked the convenient size of the Mini but wanted something a tiny bit plusher. Mini creator Alec Issigonis was probably horrified by them, when he did something basic he wanted it to stay that way.

Bristol started using the Chrysler V8 engines with the 407 but it was fitted with a Canadian built A block variant of 313 cubic inches. Later models had a 318 A block but it wasn’t until the 411 model of the late ‘60s that Bristol moved up to the 383 B block. Regrettably Bristol never offered a manual gearbox with the V8 cars but I figure if you’re forced to put up with an automatic you might as well have pushbuttons like the 407, 408, and 409! Sadly Jensen never used the pushbuttons on their Torqueflites, preferring a column mount lever on the CV-8 in the film and transitioning to a floor mount lever with the later Interceptor.

 

[moparguy]

Really neat film, thanks for posting! Regarding the Riley Elf/Wolseley Hornet, they were as hydralique stated the more luxurious badged version of the Austin/Morris Mini. They each got a version of the upright grille (the Wolseley trademark being a lighted emblem), leather interiors, wood dashes (full width wood on the Riley, wood instrument cluster on the Wolseley), but the bigger difference, literally, between them and the garden variety Mini was that they had an extended trunk, about 12-18" (my estimate). I am not sure if they were ever officially imported to the US, but some did make it here. Really fun, practical, and economical cars!

 

[harpon]

Don't bumbershoot those Ford shocks my friend!

Neat little film- cool little cars- ost of them- but strange to look back and see no seat belts or shoulder harnesses, and no headrests or high back seats-

all those things we take for granted today that save so many injuries

How big was that Cooper mini engine back then? Can't be much more than a liter by the look.

Here's the best car I ever owned: a 1988 Ford Festiva- I bought in Westminster CA just after Diana died- so that's what I called the car

Already had 175,00 on it and I drove it more than another 100 K- to over 275K with no major rebuild or clutch work- I was getting tires for $15 back then because the little 12" tires were what the tire companies put up in big numbers in their ads to attract attention.

That car just ran and ran- and never overheated even out on the California desert. I hauled a spinet piano several miles sticking out the back of it once, which not many cars with a 1.3 liter motor could do in your wildest dreams!

Had it until 2011 when I had to leave her behind.

 

[harpon]

Your Wildest dreams

Well, I invoked a video, so here it is- Mini Coopers and all:

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmPFrkuPq0

 

[gizmo]

don't get me started, I could rave on for hours...

Yes in the 60s and 70s BMC and later Leyland cars sold here in AU were locally made with high Australian content and several unique Australian models.

sorry it's really late here and I need sleep, tomorrow I'll post some details.

In the mean while, search Morris Major, Austin Kimberley, Morris Nomad and Leyland P76 for some unique Australian models from these British brands.

In the 1960s BMC Australian engineers made some improvements to the original Mini design - one of which was wind up windows. The original Mini had sliding front door windows, the Aussie engineers developed a slim mechanism which could fit in the Mini's skinny little doors. (though it lost the hollowed out doors of the original model.) I believe that some of these mods went back to the UK and were incorporated into British models.

I have owned a Morris Nomad and a Leyland P76. (Also 2 Austin 1800s, a Morris 1100, a Morris 1500 and a Mini 1275LS, the last model Mini manufactured in Australia, in 1978.)

http://www.p76.com.au/gallery.html

 

[supersuds]

The Leyland P76 looks neat, very Seventies, and with that jewel of an aluminum V-8. Too bad it had such limited production. Didn't British Leyland go bankrupt right around 1975? I recall they were nationalized sometime in the mid to late Seventies.

 

[gizmo]

I'm not sure about BL in the UK but Leyland Australia was all but shut down in 1974.

From being a full manufacturer (pressing steel panels here, manufacturing engines here) making several models - Mini, Moke, Marina, P76; assembling Land Rovers and Jaguars; making Leyland trucks and buses; just about to release the P76 wagon and Force 7 sporty hatch (Force 7 was to P76 what Mustang was to Ford Falcon) - but the Australian operation was in trouble with losses and a declining reputation, and increased competition from (Australian assembled) Japanese cars, so head office in the UK pulled the plug, shut down Leyland as a manufacturer and it became an assembler of Mini and Moke, Land Rover and Range Rover, plus importer of Triumph, Rover, Jaguar.
The assembly operations declined over time, by the early 1980s they got a contract to assemble Peugeot 505 for the Australian market. Before that, Peugeots were assembled in AU by their great rival Renault, but Renault Australia shut down local assembly in 1981 so Peugeot had to find another local assembler.

I absolutely loved the P76. My Dad almost bought one when Leyland Australia shut down in 1974 and left over stock was being sold off at half price. But they didn't have a wagon...By the early 1980s they were almost worthless, I got one when I was a uni student. The assembly quality of the early P76s was absolutely woeful, but increased soon to "no worse than other Australian-built cars..." There were jokes about them - "Leyland P38, half the car it was supposed to be" and so on. But in terms of safety, ride and handling, interior room, and standard features, they were well ahead of their opposition from Holden (GM), Ford and Chrysler. A lot of the criticism was valid, but a lot of it was BS from loyal Holden and Ford fans.

Handling and comfort were the strongest points of the P76 - a family size Holden, Falcon or Valiant from the 1970s (We had uniquely Australian cars called Valiant long after the badge disappeared in the USA) were rolly poly barges to drive, in comparison the P was nimble and crisp to drive.

in 1984 or 85 my Mum bought a new car and the family cars all went down a notch - I got her Renault 12; Dad got my P76 and Dad's completely clapped out XT Falcon was traded in on the new car. The P76 survived my Dad's complete neglect for several years, and he was very fond of it.

 

[gizmo]

Something I noticed when in the USA in 1981:

look at the front guard panel (front fender) of the P76: the crease along the top edge where the top of the guard becomes the edge of the bonnet (hood), the middle horizontal crease each side of the wheel arch, and that little vertical side repeater light that doesn't have its own bulb, but lets a bit of light from the front blinker out to the side.
I noticed in the USA that the Chevy Impala of the late 1970s had a remarkably similar look - the panels look almost interchangeable. The Chev doesn't have the fine chrome strip that the P76 had at the top of the panel, but the steel pressing is really similar.
Can anyone else see that?
The P76 styling was done in 71, 72 for its release in 1973. When did that Chev come out? Could the P76 have influenced the styling of a Chev Impala???

 

[supersuds]

I can see quite a bit if similarity in the front fenders of the two cars.

Compare this : http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curb...nd-p76-the-car-that-killed-leyland-australia/

With this:

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/chevrolet/impala/1613235.html

The downsized Chevy Impala/Caprice was introduced in the fall of 1976 as a 1977 model. Maybe you caught a bit of stealing going on.