The Austin Allegro is a small family car A compact car , or small family car (Europe), is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car. The term often leads into confusion, however, since international compact cars are somewhat larger than their North American equivalents, mostly because no supermini/subcompact size is that was manufactured by British Leyland British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle under the Austin The Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles. The trademark is currently owned by Nanjing Automitive name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti Innocenti, an Italian machinery works, was originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920 in 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. In total, 642,350 Austin Allegros were produced during its ten year production life, with the majority being sold on the home market.
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Design
The Allegro was designed as the replacement for the popular Austin 1100/1300, designed by Sir Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959 and John Grant. As with the Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7, the car can be seen with hindsight as symptomatic of the enormous difficulties facing British Leyland during that period. The key factor that British Leyland appear to have missed is that a much more useful and popular form of car, the hatchback A Hatchback is a broad term for a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate — and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box design, the body style typically, was emerging in Europe, with designs such as the Volkswagen Golf The front-wheel drive Golf was Volkswagen's first successful replacement for the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle. Historically, it is Volkswagen's best-selling model and the world's third best-selling model, with more than 25 million built by 2007. This configuration would go on to dominate the market for small family cars in the space of a few years. British Leyland stuck to the more traditional and less versatile booted design when they launched the Allegro. This was because of internal company politics; it had been decided that the Austin Maxi should have a hatchback as its unique selling point, and that no other car in the company's line-up was allowed one. This decision hamstrung both the Allegro and the Leyland Princess, both designs naturally suited to a hatchback yet not given one.[citation needed]
Rear of an exported AllegroThe Allegro used front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles, using the familiar A-Series engine with a sump-mounted transmission. The higher-specification models used the SOHC Overhead camshaft, commonly abbreviated to OHC, valvetrain configurations place the engine camshaft within the cylinder heads, above the combustion chambers, and drive the valves or lifters in a more direct manner compared to overhead valves and pushrods E-Series engine (from the Maxi), in 1500cc and 1750cc displacements. The two-box saloon bodyshell was suspended using the new Hydragas Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation and its successor companies system (derived from the previous Hydrolastic Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation and its successor companies system used on the 1100/1300).
The Allegro was assembled by Innocenti in Italy where it was badged as the Innocenti Regent.Stylistically, it went against the sharp-edged styling cues that were becoming fashionable (largely led by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro), and featured rounded panel work. The original styling proposal, by Harris Mann, had the same sleek, wedge-like shape of the Princess, but because British Leyland management, keen to control costs, wanted to install the existing E-Series engine and bulky heating system from the Marina, it became impossible to incorporate the low bonnet line as envisaged: the bodyshell began to look more and more bloated and tubby. This was acceptable to BL, however, which according to Jeff Daniels' book—British Leyland, The Truth About The Cars, published in 1980—wanted to follow the Citroën Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group approach of combining advanced technology with styling that eschewed mainstream trends to create long-lasting "timeless" models. Its unfashionable shape was thus not an problem. The final car bore little resemblance to Mann's original concept that had originally been conceived as an 1100/1300 re-skin. This, as well as British Leyland's faith in it as a model that would help turn the company around, led to it earning the early nickname of the "flying pig". The car was offered in the usual range of British Leyland colours; notably beige, brown, and matt green.
Allegro buyers preferring a car with a tailgate had to opt for the estateWith the Allegro, the makers avoided the full extent of badge engineering Badge engineering is a term that describes the rebadging of one product (especially cars) as another. Due to the high cost of designing and engineering a totally new model, or establishing a new brand (which may take many years to gain acceptance), it is often more cost-effective to rebadge a single product multiple times that defined the marketing of its predecessor, but they nevertheless introduced in September 1974 [2]an upmarket Allegro branded as the Vanden Plas 1500/1750: this featured a prominent grille at the front and an interior enhanced by a range of modifications designed to attract traditionally inclined customers, including special seats upholstered in real leather with reclining backrests, 'deep' carpets, extra sound insulation, a new instrument panel in walnut, nylon headlining and, for the luggage a fully trimmed boot / trunk. In 1974, a time when the UK starting price for the Austin Allegro was given as GBP 1,159, BLMC were quoting, at launch, a list price of GBP 1,951 for its Vanden Plas sibling.[2] The Allegro name was not used on this version.
Early Allegro models featured a "quartic" steering wheel, which was rectangular, with rounded sides. This was touted as allowing extra room between the driver's legs and the base of the steering wheel. The quartic wheel did not take off, and was first dropped in 1974 when the SS was replaced by the HL, the VP 1500 was never introduced with one, despite it being featured in the owners manual. Despite this feature only having appeared on certain models for a limited time, the Allegro has always been associated with the criticism that it "had a square steering wheel".
In April 1975 a 3-door estate car A station wagon is a passenger car body style similar in terms of passengers to the sedan/saloon style but incorporating a full-size back cargo compartment accessible via a fifth door instead of the standard sedan trunk slot. Station wagons are not to be confused with hatchbacks, whose difference lies in the size of the said compartment, with version was added to the range: Allegros were now coming off the production line with the same conventional steering wheel as the Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7,[3] although the company waited till early June 1975 to announce, rather quietly, the demise of the Allegro's quartic steering wheel, presumably to give time for older cars to emerge from the sales and distribution network. Similar to the 2-door saloon the Allegro estates featured a rear wash wipe and coachline like the saloon models: the spare wheel was housed under the rear load floor area. They were only in production for approx 100 days before the arrival of the Series 2 model, making Series I Allegro estate rarer than most other models in the range.
Dimensions
Publicity shot, 1973 Vanden plas 1500 variant, 1977 model- Overall length: 3852 mm (152 in)
- Overall width: 1613 mm (63 in)
- Height: 1398 mm (55 in)
- Wheelbase: 2442 mm (96 in)
- Track: 1346 mm ( 53 inches)
- Weight: 869 kg (1915 lb)
- Tyre size: 145 x 13 (155 x 13 on 1750 and Sport)
Range
| Types | Years | Body Style | Engine | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegro 1100 DL | 1973–1975 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 1098 cc 48 bhp (36 kW) | 4-speed Manual |
| Allegro 1300 DL | 1973–1975 | 2-door Saloon 1973–74 4-door Saloon | 1275 cc 54 bhp (40 kW) | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1300 SDL | 1973–1975 1975 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1275 cc 54 bhp (40 kW) | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1500 SDL | 1973–1975 1975 | 2-door Saloon 1973–74 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1485 cc 68 bhp (51 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1500 Special | 1973–1975 | 4-door Saloon | 1485 cc 68 bhp (51 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1750 Sport | 1973–1974 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc 85 bhp (63 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1750 SS | 1973–1974 | 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc 85 bhp (63 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro 1750 HL | 1974–1975 | 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc 91 bhp (68 kW) | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro 1750 Sport TC | 1974–1975 | 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc 91 bhp (68 kW) | 5-speed Manual |
Allegro 2 (1975–1979)
Launched in time for the London Motor Show in October 1975, the Allegro 2 had the same bodyshells but featured a new grille, reversing lights on most models and some interior changes to increase rear seat room. The Estate gained a new coachline running over the wing top lip and window edges. Changes were also made to the suspension, braking, engine mounts and drive shafts.
Some models of Allegro 2 made for non-UK markets were equipped with four round headlights, rather than the usual two rectangular items.
Range
| Types | Years | Body Style | Engine | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegro S2 1100 DL | 1975–1979 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 4-speed Manual | |
| Allegro S2 1300 DL | 1975–1977 for fleet customers only | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 1275 cc 54 bhp (40 kW) | 4-speed Manual |
| Allegro S2 1300 Super | 1975–1979 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1275 cc 54 bhp (40 kW) | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S2 1500 Super | 1975–1979 | 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1485 cc 68 bhp (51 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S2 1500 Special | 1975–1979 | 4-door Saloon | 1485 cc 68 bhp (51 kW) | 5-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S2 1500 Special LE | 1978 Limited Edition | 4-door Saloon | 1485 cc 68 bhp (51 kW) | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S2 1750 HL | 1975–1979 | 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc 91 bhp (68 kW) | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S2 1750 Equipe | 1979 Limited Edition | 2-door Saloon | 1748 cc 91 bhp (68 kW) | 5-speed Manual |
Allegro 3 (1979–1983)
The Allegro 3, introduced at the end of 1979, used the "A-Plus" version of the 1.0 litre A-Series engine (developed for the Metro), and featured some cosmetic alterations in an attempt to keep the momentum going, but by then the Allegro was outdated, competing against the relatively high-tech Ford Escort Mark III and Vauxhall Astra, and after 1980 it failed to feature in the top 10 best selling new cars in Britain, barely a decade since its predecessor had been Britain's most popular new car.
Some models of Allegro 3 (the early HL and later HLS models) were equipped with four round headlights, rather than the usual two rectangular items.
The axe finally fell on the model in mid 1982, upon the launch of its successor, the Maestro.
Range
| Types | Years | Body Style | Engine | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegro S3 1.1 | 1979–1981 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 1098 cc | 4-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.0 L | 1981–1982 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 998 cc | 4-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.3 | 1979–1981 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon | 1275 cc | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S3 1.3 L | 1979–1982 | 2-door Saloon 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1275 cc | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S3 1.3 HL | 1979–1982 | 4-door Saloon | 1275 cc | 4-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.3 HLS | 1981–1982 | 4-door Saloon | 1275 cc | 4-speed Manual 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S3 1.5 | 1979–1981 | 4-door Saloon | 1485 cc | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.5 L | 1979–1981 | 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1485 cc | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.5 HL | 1979–1982 | 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1485 cc | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.5 HLS | 1981–1982 | 4-door Saloon | 1485 cc | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.7 L | 1979–1981 | 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1748 cc | 3-speed Automatic |
| Allegro S3 1.7 HL | 1979–1982 | 4-door Saloon 3-door Estate | 1748 cc | 5-speed Manual |
| Allegro S3 1.7 HLS | 1981–1982 | 4-door Saloon | 1748 cc | 5-speed Manual |
