Phil McCumisky*
Car: Leyland P76 Super Hometown: Rochester, Victoria
What is it?
“This car started life as a factory standard four-speed Leyland P76 Super model tted with the all alloy 3.5-litre V8 engine which powered the Rover 3500 in the UK.”
When did you buy it?
“I have now owned the car for around ve years. I bought it from Norman Julian who lives in Orange. He is a very skilled man and has restored/rebuilt many vehicles. He was the man who fully rebuilt this car to what it is today.”
Why did you buy it?
“The car was in very good condition when bought which was the prime reason to decide to do a complete re-build. All the mechanicals save the gearbox are factory original and were sold as new with the car. The engine was up-rated to ve litres with various engine modi cations to suit and complement the increased engine capacity and new performance capabilities.”
How does it go?
“The P76 in itself has never been considered as a muscle car, but that is mainly due to the fact that they were not in the market long enough for their inherit qualities to become known and the hot car scene was already taken up by the others. Research on the engine of the P76 will open up many unknown facts, such as the basics of this engine was what powered Formula 5000 in the years since the demise of the P76 here in Australia. So this fact alone may admit the P76 to the realms of Australian muscle car status.”
What do you know about its history?
“I am the third owner and bought the car as is from Orange. That owner is responsible for the car in its present state. The exterior was repainted in the original colour of Nutmeg in a two-pack nish. The magnesium wheels are of the same period as the car. The transmission is now a ve-speed manual and the car is tted with four-wheel power assisted disc brakes with eight-inch rims at the rear and seven-inch at the front. All the electrics have been updated along with the suspension, now modi ed to handle the extra power and to provide a better handling package to suit the increased performance of the car. The entire interior has been re-designed to re ect a more modern comfort base but still done in a style and colour combination that compliments the exterior of the car. Power steering has been tted.
It’s not standard on this model but is tted as a standard item on the Executive model, as has a two-speed intermittent wiper/washer system, an under-dash air-conditioning system, updated instrumentation including RPM counter, plus better lighting and driving lights. The car is tted with a number of factory extras available to all P76s from new if required and some of which are now considered reasonably rare items.”
Anything you’d like to add?
“A great deal of the criticism levelled at the P76 was largely due to ignorance by those who chose to believe what the experts had written on the car without doing their own research. A fact of the times was that all other car manufacturers of the era had exactly the same types and kinds of problems on the release of their respective new models that the P76 had yet were never written up by the motoring press in the same light as was the P76. Probably the biggest thing against Leyland was the timing of the car’s release. A great many things which have been recognised and well documented since and which were also totally out of Leyland’s control at the time were regarded as being main contributors to the bad press the car received after release. It is interesting to note some 46 years after the car’s release that the Leyland P76 is recognised as a collector’s item. I’m hoping to nd a new home for it.” *Phil McCumisky drove a FB model Holden in the 1963 Armstrong 500 at Bathurst with Lex Brailey.Their story appeared in issue #104’s ‘Galah performance’ article.