I don’t know for sure
because I don’t have a complete set of back issues, but I suspect that this may be the first time Classics magazine has featured a Leyland P76 as its main cover image. This was Leyland Australia’s brave attempt to take the fight for volume sales in their domestic market to the likes of Holden, Ford and Chrysler. There were plans to bring the P76 to the UK as well, but these came to nothing when the whole project was canned prematurely after just 18 months of production.
The reasons for this failure will be all too familiar to anybody with a soft spot for BMC and BL cars from the 1960s onwards – a lack of money to invest, a troubled workforce, poor quality control and a rush to get cars to market before they had been properly tested. As invariably happens, by the time things had been fully sorted and the cars coming off the production line were as good as they always should have been, the damage had been done and the car’s reputation was tarnished beyond any hope of redemption.
Often you can add another factor into this toxic mix – production delays that meant a state-of-the-art design had become outdated by the time it reached the showroom. I could have picked any number of models to illustrate this, but have plumped for the great shot of Austin Maestros on the Longbridge production lines at the top of this page. I have a soft spot for the Maestro/ Montego range, but there is no denying they never achieved the sales success that their forward thinking, innovative and practical design surely deserved. Looking on the bright side, at least they offer us some great additional choices on the classic scene!
Talking of looking on the bright side, you will notice that once again we have tried to make this a COVID-19 free zone as much as possible. To be sure it does inevitably creep into one or two pages, but our focus remains on the cars. That does not mean we are blind to the economic and emotional pain the pandemic is causing, nor to the sacrifices that so many people are making in these difficult times, and we do hope that you and yours are hanging in there and staying safe. Every cloud must have a silver lining though, and if the feedback we’ve been getting from our advertisers is anything to go by, many of you are busy in the garage and buying spares by the truck load, so we hope to see a bumper crop of finished projects in due course.
In the meantime, please forgive me for once again plugging some of the great deals currently available on Classics magazine. For example, you can order single issues and only pay the cover price while also getting free delivery to your door in the UK (or delivery abroad for just an additional £1) from shop. kelsey.co.uk/issue/CMT or by calling 01959 543 747. You can also get three issues for just £9.99 on a rolling basis at shop. kelsey.co.uk/promotion/cb20, and there are more great deals on shop.kelsey.co.uk/ subscription/CMT. So please do stay in touch, and let’s look forward together to brighter times ahead.