www.leylandprincess.co.uk
Club 100
Special
This has
to be the most special of all the special edition Princess models, as none of
the ‘SP’ cars are known to have survived!
Back in the late 70s/early 80s, BL Cars ran a ‘100 Club’ for
their top 100 performing dealer principals. Rewards typically included
holidays abroad, etc.
At the end of 1980 the award was to be a top of the range car.
At that time, the dealer network was still split very much between Austin
Morris and Jaguar Rover Triumph and in the latter case it was a simple matter
of awarding a Rover Vanden Plas SD1. However, it was felt that the Austin
Morris guys deserved better than ‘just’ a Princess 2200 HLS, so the ‘100
Club’ special edition was created. It was based on the 2200HLS, with the
following changes to standard specification:
·
Automatic transmission.
·
No vinyl on roof or rear quarters, instead the
enamelled Princess crown endowed the rear quarter pillars.
·
Two tone paintwork: Pewter metallic over Romano Purple
(the latter was not a production
colour at any time). The split was bordered with black coachline and was made
below the car’s waistline, as can be seen in the pictures.
·
Velour seat facings in Spanish Rose colour scheme with
matching carpets (this colour ‘revived’ from the mid Seventies). The sides
and backs of the seats, together with the door trims, however, were trimmed
in black vinyl, and the seat backs did not have the usual HLS map pockets.
·
Britax electric sliding sunroof with glass panel.
·
Smiths ‘Servoglide’ electric window lifts on all four
doors.
·
Smaller 4-spoke steering wheel as normally fitted to
Allegro and Metro HLS models.
·
Radiomobile AM radio/stereo cassette player with Dolby
noise reduction.
·
Unique 14 inch ‘Rimbellishers’ fitted to the wheels
(with a square profile, as opposed to the normal rounded items fitted to the
HLS). Some cars were fitted with the optional alloy wheels.
There was no
badging or script anywhere on the cars to identify them as a special edition.
No sales
literature is known to have been published for these cars, and only 37 Club
100 Specials were built (as, of course, some of the ‘members’ that year were
likely to have received a Rover). There is however a reference to the car on
the factory spare parts microfiche. Club 100 members also received a special
tie and brief case.
The car
pictured has been owned by Paul Vincent since 1994 and has only covered
49,500 miles since new. It originated from a Mann Egerton dealership in
Cambridgeshire and is in good unrestored condition.
As only 37 of these
versions were built and very few survive an immaculate example can be worth
as much as a Wolseley.
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