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WHY
NO SPORTS PRINCESS?
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Looking
beyond the styling, the Princess was a rather dull car based on old
mechanicals (or tried and trusted, if you want the BL speak), it was rather
slow, it wasn’t very exciting to drive, and its reputation for quality was,
along with most BL products of the time, lamentable.
The spectacular wedge styling was ahead of its time but
in terms of packaging, it offered little more than the outgoing 18-22 ‘Land
Crab’. The design brief for the new 18-22 range was to take all the things
that made the Land Crab attractive to customers and place it in a more
stylish body. The old Land Crab may have been dull to look at, but it did
have a cosy ‘rightness’ about it which allowed it to blend into any
background.
Compared to
its forebear, the Princess was right in your face with its sleek, drooping
bonnet line and dynamic wedge profile. In fact it was so dramatic that it
probably put off the staid clientele that the car was aimed at, which is no
bad thing because it should have made it more attractive to younger buyers.
But when they saw the rather lacklustre performance figures and compared them
with rivals, it was clear that the Princess was, well, slow. For example, a
2.0litre Cortina could get to 60 in 10.8 seconds whilst the Princess got
there in 13…
Acres of
interior space are no compensation for being last away from the line at the
traffic light Grand Prix. Even
mid-range Allegro’s and Ital’s were blessed with a rev-counter, yet BL
thought that the average Princess driver wasn’t interested in this most basic
of instruments, presuming the time of day was more important than whether it
was time to change gear.
The Princess range was pretty much left to its own
devices during its life as far as styling goes; mild tweaks were made to trim
and badging, but nothing significant happened. The only significant
mechanical change was the replacement of the old 1800 B-Series engine with
1700 and 2000cc O-Series units in 1978, complementing the straight-six 2200.
Journalists were hoping that these two new engines would add a bit of sparkle
to the range but unfortunately, despite their technical merits, they were
still saddled with the old notchy four-speed gearbox, and were really no
better in day-to-day use than the old 1800 ‘B’.
If you wanted a performance Princess you could always
ask the Special Tuning division of Leyland for the bolt-on Pluspac
conversion, which replaced the single carb on the four cylinder cars with a
twin-carb set up. Performance was markedly improved with 60 coming up almost
3.5 seconds faster than the standard car (11.6seconds); the 1800 B-Series conversion
tested by Autocar in 1978 easily out accelerated an MGB, though the standard
Princess handling and steering were left untouched, as was the interior.
There were hot versions of the Marina (TC) and Maxi
(HLS), not to mention competitors cars like the Ford Cortina 2.0 and 2.3S,
which were enhanced by simple bolt on accessories like twin carbs, sporty
wheel trims or wheels, and racy looking cloth seat trim. So, why didn’t BL
offer a performance version of the Princess to accommodate the press-on driver?
It was so easy to do, as the Princess 1800ST proved. But even basic items
such as alloy wheels weren’t available on the Princess until late 1980 –
remember this is five years after the car was launched!
It’s possible that a complete lack of funds within BL
meant that any thoughts of increasing the Princess range with more versions
was impossible as they had enough on their hands trying to sort out
reliability problems with the models that were on sale. But it would have
addressed the rather lacklustre performance issues that put off potential
customers, who instead opted for cars like the far more dynamic Vauxhall
Cavalier. I also wonder why BL chose the Princess name for the wedge,
although it does suit the car you can’t say it’s an exciting moniker.
In fact the only official special edition Princess was
the 1978 Special Six Automatic, which was launched in desperation to replace
manual gearbox versions of the 2200, which were taken off sale whilst
engineers tried to fix its unhealthy appetite for driveshafts, but it was
just a ‘bitsa’ model, made up from a mix and match of HL and HLS trim and
only available in black.
In 1982, the similarly styled, though characterless,
Austin Ambassador arrived; out went the 2200 engine and in came a twin carburettor
2.0 litre O-Series engine. Was this the answer to the performance problems?
Alas, no. The extra weight of the tailgate and other structural changes, plus
all the extras like electric windows and central locking meant that the
Vanden Plas Ambassador was some 150kg heavier than the outgoing Princess
2000HL.
1982 also saw the re-emergence of sporting heritage from
Leyland; MG. Though this time the badge was applied to a souped up version of
the Austin Metro, it pointed the direction for future sporting derivatives of
Austin cars, and although the MG purists greeted it with disdain, the public
loved it and it became one of the best-selling hot hatches of the
Eighties. The success of the MG Metro
was carried over in 1984 to the O-Series engined Maestro and Montego; both
received the MG treatment to great effect.
Could the Ambassador have received the MG treatment?
Perhaps, but as it was no more than a stop gap product between the Princess
and Maestro there was never any plan to do so, but it would have been a nice
diversion in the range and would have complemented the MG Metro as a sports
hatch for grown-ups. Transforming the Austin Metro into the MG Metro was
quite a cheap marketing exercise, so slapping a few MG badges on the
Ambassador and adding some sports seats wouldn’t have cost too much, and
tweaking the engine up to about 130bhp and putting firmer dampers in the
displacers would’ve finished the job. But the Princess and Ambassador just
wasn’t that sort of car, but then neither was the Metro and Maestro.
The advanced wedge styling hinted at so much, but it
simply never lived up to it.
Kevin Davis.
This page updated 21st July 2007.
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