Welcome to another Monday Morning game of chicken with slot cars -- also known as What Am I? Even if you flinch, nobody wins. Todays game comes courtesy of Zach who sent us a picture and asks everyone to guys the British Leyland product. Good luck!
The P76 was British Leyland’s only large Australian car, designed to challenge Holden Kingswoods, Ford Falcons, and Chrysler Valiants of the day. Unfortunately the 1970s were a grim time for British Leyland with worker strikes and poor sales leading to a lack of cash. The P76 was developed from concept to production on a shoestring budget in a mere three years. Being a new competitor in an established market was always going to be difficult for success, but the Leyland delivered, winning the Wheel’s Car of the Year in 1973. Sadly, the public didn’t take to the new car as well as the press had, with continuous quality control problems (as was typical of Leyland cars during the 1970s) and the Oil Crisis in full swing as the car was launched in 1973. Find this 1973 Leyland P76 for $17,900 AUD ($13580 USD at the time of writing) in Niddrie, Victoria, Australia, via carsales.com.au.
In the early 1960s Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis was given a project from his bosses at BMC (British Motor Corp) with the internal and thoroughly unsexy name ADO16. This project would be the basis for a family of larger than the Mini vehicles including the Austin 1100/1300, MG 1100/1300 and Morris 1100/1300. Combined production figures for the entire family made the ADO16 front drive machine one of the best selling vehicles in the UK, and it was exported in decent quantity (60,000 from 1968-1972 according to austinamericausa.com). Unfortunately the Austin America wasn't well suited to the US style of high-speed freeway driving and earned a reputation for poor quality, rust, and repeated mechanical failures. Few remain intact, much less on the road today, but one of them is this 1969 Austin America for sale in La Mirada, CA for $3,500 via craigslist.