Bizarelly, this has become one of the very most popular pages of my
website. Somebody somewhere Google's for Austin Princess at least once a
day and ends up here! Weird huh? Well hello, welcome, and
please click on 'Home' above to have a wander round my site before you
go!
Britain's most forgotten car?
The
Princess was my Dad's first company car. He got a 1700HL model in
a very bright
red in 1980. At the time it seemed awesome. We nicknamed it
"the big orange" and it did seem enormous compared to our Mini!
They were very striking in their day compared to the other cars on the road and
looked futuristic and to most people ugly.
I was rummaging through the loft the other day and came across the original
brochure so thought I'd scan some of it and put it here.
For some reason, the Princess had a boot instead of a hatchback
- later rectified in the re-modeled Ambassador - but it once caused my Dad to
nearly crash the car. We were driving along when he exploded into a
barrage of abuse about the bright red lorry that was driving right against our
back bumper - it followed us for miles at high speed - then we all realised - it
was the boot lid that had opened up...
The Austin Ambassador
The Austin Ambassador didn't last long... and to my mind had none of
the style or character of the Princess on which it was obviously just a
mild makeover of. Many aspects of it were obviously created as
quickly and cheaply as possible, and much of the interior and some
exterior components were just lifted from other BL Models. Below
is the complete brochure - not sure which year, but it is probably 1983.
Princess Internet Links:-
Leyland Princess - excellent,
comprehensive website. It really is all you need. You
should be there alread, not here. What are you waiting for?
The Austin Princess
(& The Austin Ambassador)
