If you you want to pick an argument
with a Leyland P76 owner, just call the car a `lemon.'
Then either run, or have plenty of
facts to back up your statement. History tells us the P76 was a
primarily victim of bad timing.
And, as any comedian will tell you,
timing is everything. The P76 was also a victim of industry sledging.
This was picked up by the media ... and you know what happens when a
snow ball stars to roll. Just ask Mitsubishi Australia who suffered a
similar fate with local production of the Magna and 380.
But the fact remain to this day the P76
is tagged as a lemon. This places it alongside the Ford Edsel and
Chevrolet Corsair, exposed by Ralph Nader, and dare we mention it,
the South Australian Lightburn Zeta, as a sour citrus fruit.
The P76 was a uniquely Australian car
as a production of Leyland Australia, a subsidiary
of British Leyland. It was a big car with a massive boot, a choice of
six cylinder or V8 engine, and a distinctive design that set it apart
from rivals at the `big three', Falcon, Kingswood and Valiant. Until
then BMC and Leyland tried to compete in this segment with inferior
British-built cars.
That perhaps needs some explanation.
Going back to the earliest days of the automobile – 1900 to 1925 -
Australian distributors imported marques from around the globe.
Those that best suited the rough-and-tumble Australian conditions
were American. They had a sturdier build and better ground clearance.
Cars like the Model-T Ford, Willys, Studebaker, Chrysler and
Cadillac. American road conditions were similar to ours – ordinary
– and the British and some of the Europeans were less suited to our roads.
This became part of our psyche. Later,
during the 1950s, there were some British makes that handled our
conditions a little better: Vanguard and Vauxhall are two that come
to mind. But, the fact remained our primary influence was from the
US. Our home-grown Holden – designed in the US – and
garden-variety VW Beetle were tough competitors. So Leyland struggled
along with a succession of cars under the banner of Austin, Morris
and Wolseley that failed to excite the buying public. Two that did
quite well were the Austin Tasman X6 and Austin 1800 and Austin
Kimberley and Freeway.
By 1969 Ford was well entrenched with
the locally-made Falcon, Holden was a strong as ever and Valiant was
also going well. These were bigger cars with bigger engines. The
Leyland P76 `wedge' shape was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and was
distinctive, and could be easily argued far more modern in appearance
than its rivals.
Development work started in 1969 and
the car was launched in 1973 after development and production costs
of around $21 million.
While our featured cars are V8
variants, the entry level cars came with a bored-out six 2.25 litre
cylinder engine upped to 2.6 litres from the Austin Kimberley and
Tasman, both smaller cars. The V8 is an interesting power plant. It
started life as a Buick engine used in the well-known Rover 3500. It
was bored out to 4416cc and found its way into the P76 with a
significant 161 kW of power. It is fair to say that these V8 P76 cars
and now keenly sought after by P76 buffs and collectors.
We found this pair at the Gold Coast's
annual South Coast Restoration Society's annual pioneer rally in July
2009. The white one is a one-owner, which say everything about what
he thinks of the car. When launched in 1973 Leyland expected sales of
around 50,000. But, there were outside factors it did not count on –
and a few inside issues related to build quality. Initially, it all
started well. The V8 powered variant won 1973 `Wheels Car of the
Year', always a good start to a car's career.
But there were production and supply
problems at the Zetland, Sydney production plant and while buyers
queued, Leyland Australia was unable to deliver. There were small
teething troubles too ... not unusual at Ford, Holden or Chrysler ...
but for some reason they seemed to hit the headlines with the P76. As
we all know you don't get a second chance at a first impression. So
the P76 was a little on the nose. Then, outside the Australian motor
industry's control, fuel prices soared.
This was not a time to be selling new,
or used, V8s. Your correspondent sold his 327 Bathurst Monaro in 1974
for exactly the same reason. If I still owned that car it would make
up most of my superannuation. Value: around AU$750,000.
So, the coup de grace for P76 was
delivered by a combination of a mini-recession and spiraling fuel
costs and a scare about the on-going availability of fossil fuel.
Then, like now, Australians headed straight for smaller, four
cylinder cars. The poor P76 was a victim primarily of timing and most
likely lack of on-going support for the project from British Leyland,
which had it's own financial woes.
In 1974 a Leyland P76 driven by Evan
Green won the Targa Florio trophy in the World Cup Rally and
subsequently Leyland Australia released a Targa Florio model which
was blue with silver stripes with some added extras to give it
individuality. But, it was not enough to save the P76. In October
1974 the Zetland plant closed and Australian production of the P76
ceased. The production run was just 16 months and just under 13,000
units, plus several thousand in New Zealand. The Kiwi's kept on
assembling the V8 variants until 1976.
The Australian cars were sold in three
trim levels, Deluxe, Super and Executive. The orange car pictured is
a V8 Deluxe while the white car is a rare Executive T-bar auto V8.
The P76 was well-equipped with standard power assisted front disc
brakes and side impact protection bars. A talking point was the
windscreen wipers which emerged to do their work from beneath the
bonnet line. Also, the door handles were recessed. The majority of
the car was made from Australian components, including Borg Warner
transmissions.
Leyland Australia had big plans for the
P76. Concept versions of a two door coupe called Force 7, were built
along with a station wagon. But for unfortunate timing who knows what
might have happened...
FEEDBACK:P76 Article
Generally a good positive article that is
unbiased. Good to see there are still some unbiased journalists around. Some of
the details aren't quite correct but generally accurate.
User
Name: Steve Maher
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