For those interested in old cars.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

 

I had a couple of Princesses when they were around and one Ambassador. I thought they ruined the lines when they did the Ambassador, I'd have left the Princess as it was and just put the hatch on it, strangely I thought that the Ital was better looking than the Marina, though! As said the Princess whether sitting in the front or back was a lovely car to travel in, especially with the smooth straight 6 up front. It was a car of it's time, though, like the TR7, people either like them or not, personally I like them...

When I was looking around for a new car c. 1981 I was seriously considering a Princess. My mother tried the back seat and decided she didn't like it. The reason was she suffered from claustrophobia and found it to be too enclosed.

[boxbrownie]

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

My mother tried the back seat and decided she didn't like it. The reason was she suffered from claustrophobia and found it to be too enclosed.

That really does surprise me, the Princess was one of the best in class for rear space.......what did you buy in the end?

[PhilJ W]

9 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

That really does surprise me, the Princess was one of the best in class for rear space.......what did you buy in the end?

It was the rear quarter pillars that induced the claustrophobia, not the space itself. In the end I got a MkII Allegro Estate.

[russ p]

11 hours ago, APOLLO said:

Princess YUK  !!!!

 

Back in 1975 when I bought my brand new Princess (I was 23 !!) it turned heads - a VERY  futuristic design back then. Boring 1800 B series single carb engine though , I couldn't afford the 6 pot engine. It had fantastic Hydrogas suspension - held the road superbly. Very roomy and comfortable drive, 30 mpg BUT no power steering and a bit of a bu88er sometimes to park !!. Mine had a few minor niggles but NEVER left me stranded. A very simple car to service and work on also,  took me up to Inverness and down to Lands End, and Wigan to Warrington a couple of thousand times

 

Never seen one for years, I would like an auto 6 pot with power steering please !!

 

Not mine but the same colour as mine (Reynard metallic). Mine had a black vinyl roof - all the rage back then !!

 

 

 

 

We will never see main stream futuristic cars like these again - most modern cars these days (to me) are very bland and some are just plug ugly, yes beauty is in the eyes of the beholder - but for me the Princess body design wise was years ahead of its time. A legend.

 

edited to add for the record. When the range was introduced in early 1975 it was called the Austin 18-22 series (there was also a Wolseley 6 cyl). I ordered mine in November 75 and the range had been re-branded Leyland Princess. Not sure if the wolseley name carried on for a while or disappeared at this time - long long time ago.

 

Brit15

 

 

Loads of extras but no princess or ambassador ever had a factory rev counter,  HLS and VP ambassadors had vacuum gauges bizarrely 

[PatB]

10 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

 

Loads of extras but no princess or ambassador ever had a factory rev counter,  HLS and VP ambassadors had vacuum gauges bizarrely 

 

Realistically, though, for those few who know how to use it, a vac gauge is rather more useful than a tacho in day to day motoring. 

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

We recently viewed several 3 litre X-Types (Sovereigns) to use as a “stand by” long distance car.......each and every one of them had completely rotten cills under the plastic cill covers........a nightmare.

I bought a (too cheap) S-type with 6 months MOT that had the same problem.  It failed the next on corrosion in three places with two more advisories,  There wasn't a single advisory on the existing MOT, so unless it had been parked in the Solent for a while, the previous MOT was VERY dodgy.  At least the plate was worth 2/3rds of the value of the car so I kept that and sold the car for spares or repair.  Even with this an lots of other niggles though, it was the best drivers car I have ever owned.  I can highly recommend S-types if you spend time finding a good one.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I bought a (too cheap) S-type with 6 months MOT that had the same problem.  It failed the next on corrosion in three places with two more advisories,  There wasn't a single advisory on the existing MOT, so unless it had been parked in the Solent for a while, the previous MOT was VERY dodgy.  At least the plate was worth 2/3rds of the value of the car so I kept that and sold the car for spares or repair.  Even with this an lots of other niggles though, it was the best drivers car I have ever owned.  I can highly recommend S-types if you spend time finding a good one.

Actually we looked at two S-Types also......both Supercharged   but indeed the MoTs both had advisories on rust (around the rear suspension hangers) and along the cills......shame as they had all the bells and whistles and one had the very unusual (for a SC) oyster leather with BRG piping, looked gorgeous.

[big jim]

Yeah I had an s type too, only 4 year old when I got it, absolutely loved it never missed a beat and absolutely immaculate inside and out 

 

mine was was the 3l V6 petrol one 

 

(pics in the modern classics thread) 

[MJI]

22 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

 You may not have thought so at the time, but trust me.......you did!

 

Being able to out accelerate solo cars was usefull, lots of DC and MWay.

 

Didn't do holding up but got held up loads of times.

[Northmoor]

9 minutes ago, MJI said:

Being able to out accelerate solo cars was usefull, lots of DC and MWay.

Didn't do holding up but got held up loads of times.

We did a lot of caravan holidays in my youth.  Dad had three Austin Maxis; great tow cars but not quick and he often pulled over to let past any queue that was building up.  In later years we had two 2.0 Montegos and I well remember us driving up through Wales and getting very frustrated following some local member of the 42mph brigade.  When the straights appeared, the gaps in traffic weren't long enough to get past with the 'van (solo would have been no issue).  I often wonder how often people complain about caravanners - because that's what they can see ahead in the queue - without realising it is some incredibly selfish and/or incompetent driver in front of the car and caravan who is causing the mobile roadblock?

[Kickstart]

On 18/08/2019 at 21:30, PhilJ W said:

 

 

13 hours ago, peanuts said:

have a look at an S type bit more refinde than the  x nice choice of engines 2.5 3.0 v6 4.0 4.2 v8 plus the supercharged 4.2 v8 and the 2.7tt v6 diesel dependant on what year nice interiors with lots of kit just smoot fuss free motoring with a bit of uuumph when you need it 

 

Although the X Type was a good car (better than the 3 series that replaced it), it wasn’t a car that suited me. I like revvy engines and playing tunes on the gearbox (too many years of small 2 stroke bikes). The toystend not to bother me much.

 

11 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

The Wolseley car brand died with the change of name to Princess (advertised as Princess from Leyland Cars), making them not only the last Wolseley car but the rarest production ADO17.

 

A neighbour had one for many years. Didn’t realise they were that short lived.

 

10 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

We recently viewed several 3 litre X-Types (Sovereigns) to use as a “stand by” long distance car.......each and every one of them had completely rotten cills under the plastic cill covers........a nightmare.

 

Ours had bad rust appearing on the A posts 

 

All the best

 

Katy

[boxbrownie]

12 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I often wonder how often people complain about caravanners - because that's what they can see ahead in the queue - without realising it is some incredibly selfish and/or incompetent driver in front of the car and caravan who is causing the mobile roadblock?

It’s when those drivers decide they’d like to start caravanning the perfect storm gathers 

 

[boxbrownie]

12 hours ago, Kickstart said:

 

 

 

 

 

Ours had bad rust appearing on the A posts 

 

All the best

 

Katy

Tell the truth I didn’t even look at the A posts........that’s quite frightening actually, I wonder if it had a bad repair at some time, but to affect both posts is strange.

[Rugd1022]

Random old photo found floating in my hard drive.... the same the Cibie headlights were used by Stewart & Ardern on some of their Minisprint conversions in 1967 and 68...

 

 

 

 

[boxbrownie]

4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Random old photo found floating in my hard drive.... the same the Cibie headlights were used by Stewart & Ardern on some of their Minisprint conversions in 1967 and 68...

 

 

 

 

The very best (halogen) headlamps we ever had were on a Citroen GSA......huge reflector, huge lens and made by Cibié before Cibié were just another parts supplier.

[Rugd1022]

From the 1965 Radford brochure...

 

 

[Northmoor]

On 09/09/2019 at 14:47, Rugd1022 said:

Random old photo found floating in my hard drive.... the same the Cibie headlights were used by Stewart & Ardern on some of their Minisprint conversions in 1967 and 68...

 

 

 

 

One of these parked just round the corner from London Waterloo today.  Driver seemed to be struggling to get it to pull away, general condition was best described as "lived in".

[Oldddudders]

On 09/09/2019 at 20:17, boxbrownie said:

The very best (halogen) headlamps we ever had were on a Citroen GSA......huge reflector, huge lens and made by Cibié before Cibié were just another parts supplier.

Cibié Iode lamps were the choice on rally cars of the era. 

[alastairq]

Cibie Oscars?

[Kickstart]

On 09/09/2019 at 09:39, boxbrownie said:

Tell the truth I didn’t even look at the A posts........that’s quite frightening actually, I wonder if it had a bad repair at some time, but to affect both posts is strange.

 

Drivers A post was noticeably bubbling badly. No sign of accident damage

 

i had forgotten the other odd problem we had. Central locking played up, doing lots of weird things. Turned out to be that the tiny flap that covers the ignition key hole was stuck open, and the car thought the ignition key was in place!

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Oldddudders]

8 hours ago, alastairq said:

Cibie Oscars?

Think Oscar was part of the Iode range? I think Oscar plastic covers had Iode logos, not Oscar?

[boxbrownie]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Think Oscar was part of the Iode range? I think Oscar plastic covers had Iode logos, not Oscar?

The early lamps had Iode on them then briefly Oscar/Iode then they dropped the Iode and just used Oscar when “Iode” became old fashioned and every body used halogen rather than tungsten bulbs.

 

I had about two dozen of them of various ages (all unused) boxed in my loft, gradually sold them before we moved down here, fetched a lot of money sold to restorers of classic rally cars......like gold 

 

Couldn't shift a pair of genuine Lucas 7” tungsten sealed beams for LHD as used on the rally Minis.......but not the 1966 Rally Minis...    

[boxbrownie]

Oh yes a little tip on old headlamps/fog/spot etc......they often get a film deposited on the reflector and lens causing the shine to diminish and look ‘orrible......easy way to clean the reflector without damaging the silvering (never try cloths with cleaning solution/stuff!) is put a cup of rice, uncooked of course, in the lamp and sushhh it around.....the rice will gradually clean the reflector without damaging the surface.

[alastairq]

Forgot..Cibie Super Oscars??

[boxbrownie]

35 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Forgot..Cibie Super Oscars??

OK then....I’ll see your Super Oscars and trump it with the Bi-Oscars