British Leyland

**Indiana_Jones** · 11th February 2010, 17:34

-Indy

**slofox** · 11th February 2010, 17:40

See?! I was right all the time!

**Laava** · 11th February 2010, 17:40

...........................................

**Motu** · 11th February 2010, 18:25

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=74967

BMC and how it was.British Leyland was them all going down the gurgler.

**Indiana_Jones** · 11th February 2010, 19:53

-Indy

**merv** · 11th February 2010, 20:03

Dang with all the recalls is it Toyota now going the same way - down the gurgler? Is it all a conspiracy by Detroit to even the score?

At least with the Poms they did it all by themselves by sleeping on the night shift.

One thing about the P76 and the Princess they were spacious cars compared to their competition at the time.

**Motu** · 11th February 2010, 20:18

There was nothing wrong with the P76...it was just that the Aussies couldn't accept anything better than the big 3...which wasn't hard to do.The P76 and HQ Holden are on different planets.

The Princess wasn't too bad really - the driveline and suspension was well sorted (that means old) but the body was crap.On the old 1800,doing a clutch job meant removing the engine,a big job.But I once did a clutch on an 1800 Princess without removing the engine/gearbox.

There weren't too many special tools...but the flywheel puller was a must on the Mini/1100/1300.But every workshop in the country had one.I used to work on British Leyland car and trucks with enough tools to fit into a 4 draw concertina toolbox - these days I have a 15 draw rollcab with a 7 draw topbox.

**merv** · 11th February 2010, 20:26

You remember it was that damned oil crisis that killed the P76 - just after all the investment in putting it into production, big car sales just crashed. The Aussie Chryslers didn't last that much longer and Holden and Ford just squeaked through with some 4 cylinder models. I alway remember the ad for the P76 had it that the boot was so big the Aussie farmer could just chuck the 44 gallon drum in the back.

**Edbear** · 11th February 2010, 20:30

Originally Posted by Motu

There was nothing wrong with the P76...it was just that the Aussies couldn't accept anything better than the big 3...which wasn't hard to do.The P76 and HQ Holden are on different planets.

The Princess wasn't too bad really - the driveline and suspension was well sorted (that means old) but the body was crap.On the old 1800,doing a clutch job meant removing the engine,a big job.But I once did a clutch on an 1800 Princess without removing the engine/gearbox.

There weren't too many special tools...but the flywheel puller was a must on the Mini/1100/1300.But every workshop in the country had one.I used to work on British Leyland car and trucks with enough tools to fit into a 4 draw concertina toolbox - these days I have a 15 draw rollcab with a 7 draw topbox.

I agree with this post! My mother had an 1800 Mk1 and it was a nice car to drive on a long trip. Only mod I made was to put a shield in front of the distributor which was on the "front" of the engine and would get flooded with rain water. The Mk2 had a plastic shield factory fitted. We had an 1100 ourselves and it went really well and had the best headlights of any car I'd owned, again, roomy and comfortable to drive.

My last BMC car was a 1980 Marina 1700 with the alloy head OHC motor and apart from the weak gearbox, which never actually gave me any trouble, the only fault was the Armstrong dampers up front which, if memory serves were fitted with only one upper arm and should have had two. They wore out too soon. Otherwise it was a torquey and comfortable car to travel in.

**Edbear** · 11th February 2010, 20:33

Originally Posted by merv

You remember it was that damned oil crisis that killed the P76 - just after all the investment in putting it into production, big car sales just crashed. The Aussie Chryslers didn't last that much longer and Holden and Ford just squeaked through with some 4 cylinder models. I alway remember the ad for the P76 had it that the boot was so big the Aussie farmer could just chuck the 44 gallon drum in the back.

It was a great motor, too! Very popular as an alternative repower to the 3.5lt Rover and being 4.4lt could put out some serious power when worked over. Was wider than the 3.5 but plenty strong enough.

**YellowDog** · 11th February 2010, 20:35

I had one of these:

And then one of these:

The TR7 was the worst car I have ever owned. I gave up after 3.5 new engines.

British Leyland certainly showed those Japs how NOT to build a car.

**Indiana_Jones** · 11th February 2010, 20:49

I own one of these....

-Indy

**JMemonic** · 11th February 2010, 20:53

The P76 and Princess were Aussie Leyland, the Brits hated them, one of the killers of them was the fact an overly intelligent bloke in the UK look at the population figures for the UK and Aussie and decided that if the mini was the fine for them then it should be fine for the Aussies.

The P76 went well with the Toyota corolla gearbox mounted behind it. As has been said the 4.4 litre engine went very well with a few minor alterations, altering the timing to 5° BTDC and the addition of a 350FCM Holley made a huge difference. There was an interesting track test done by one of the Aussie car mags with the Holden, Ford, Valiant, and the P76 on the same track, there was one bend the test driver had difficulty believing the P76 could take at the speed it did and had to go back several times to prove to himself that the car really could go through it considerably faster than the others and with less body movement thanks to the then radical suspension.