Simon Cars - BLMC Cars - British Leyland Motor Corporation

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British Leyland (B.L.M.C.)

In the late 1960s the walls came crashing down on BMC in a series of mergers beginning with BMC taking over its body supplier Pressed Steel in 1965, then buying the Jaguar-Daimler business in 1966 to form British Motor Holdings. The final grouping happened in 1968 when government pressure got Leyland Trucks and its Rover-Triumph car division to join with BMH to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) later 'British Leyland'. Early products of the new organisation were the Morris Marina criticised for its out-of-date engineering and the Austin Allegro criticised for its too advanced engineering. BLMC went bankrupt in 1975 and were taken over by the government. By 1982 The names of Morris, Wolseley and Riley as well as Triumph were extinguished as British Leyland formed the Austin Rover Group. Luxury cars were the responsibility Jaguar Car Holdings which was sold off in 1984 and then went into Ford ownership. In 1986 the remnants of Austin Rover were renamed 'Rover Group' with Leyland trucks merging with DAF to form Leyland DAF and LDV. British Aerospace acquired the Rover Group in 1988, but the promised car/aircraft synergy never worked and the business was bought by BMW.

Austin Allegro. The Series 2 was launched at the 1975 Motor Show. The 1300 Super was powered by a 54bhp version of the A-series 1275cc engine.	Austin Maxi. Built using the doors from the Austin 1800 this made the car larger than the Ford Cortina and thus more costly to build. The overhead cam engine was troublesome too	Jaguar E-type Series III V12 Roadster	Jaguar XJ 4.2. Jaguar sold 59,000 XJ 4.2 cars from 1968 to 1973, and a further 574 long wheelbase versions. There were also 2.8, V12 and Daimler versions	Jaguar XJ-S LeMans V12. To celebrate victory in the 1990 24heures Du Man, 280 V12 Le Mans XJ-S were made. Special interial trim, gold growler bonnet badge, 16inch lattice alloy wheels and quad headlamps, were given to this special edition.
LDV Convoy. Evolving out of the wider Freight Rover 300 Series (1984-89), into the Leyland DAF 400 Series (1989-97), and finally into the LDV Pilot 1997-2006.	Leyland Terrier. Starting life as the Austin or Morris FJ in 1964, the FJ was normally available as a 5 or 7-tonner, but 8 and 10-tonne prime mover versions were also produced. Unlike the Austin FH, the FJ had a tilt cab. From 1968-70 the FJ cab was regrilled and given to the Leyland Terrier and Laird, and then given to the larger Boxer Clydesdale and Mastiff. From 1975 it evolved into the restyled Leyland G-series and Super G-series	Mini 1275GT was introduced as part of the new Clubman range intended to replace the more expensive Mini models such as the Elf, Hornet and Cooper. The 1275 GT only got 59bhp, single carb engine and the Cooper actually continued.	Morris Marina 1.3 Super. Power from a 1275cc Midget engine and superior trim for the 1300 Super.	Morris Ital 1.3 HL. Introduced in 1980, the Morris Ital was available with the 1275cc A-plus engine or the 1700cc O-series engine.
Austin Metro City X 1990	Austin Maestro was launched in 1983 with 1300 and 1600 engines and also as the MG Maestro 1600.	Princess 2200 HL. A 2226cc E-series 6-cylinder engine from the ADO17 2200 was available in the Princess 18-22 range	Austin Ambassador 1.7 L. Austin kept the profile of the Princess for the 6-light Ambassador, although extensive engineering was needed to produce it.	Range Rover 1972. The launch Range Rover was 'classless', its design simple and unlike anything else.
Rover 800 Sterling 1992, showing the more rounded lines than the 'folded paper' original. The Rover grille was a last minute addition.	Rover SD1 Vitesse. Introduced in October 1983, the Vitesse was based on the 3500 SE, but was given a fuel-injected 190bhp V8 engine, sports suspension, alloy wheels and wide arches.	Triumph 2500S Estate. The Triumph 2500S killed off the troublesome 2500 PI in 1975 and sported a twin carb 2½litre 106bhp engine already in USA-bound TR6 cars.	Triumph Dolomite. The 1300/1500 range were downgraded to a shorter rear wheel drive Toledo, and the longer 1500 body restyled into the Triumph Dolomite with an 1854cc slant four engine.	Triumph TR8 3.5litre. Triumph had built a number of Rover V8-engined TR7 cars, mainly Coupes, for competition and in 1979 started production of the TR8. Only about 2500 TR8 were produced, almost all for the North American market and in convertible form.
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Images created by Simon GP Geoghegan Email Simon

key text: This is the page introducing Simons love of cars from the website RedSimon which is a series of photo albums of Simon GP Geoghegan.
The names of Pinin, Farina, and Pininfarina are also considered
There are also notes on Pininfarina
as well as the car maker
and links tothat car maker
see also my Picasa car albums
withe even more on RedSimon
Simon is also a contributor to SuperCars.Net
And also to Wikipedia
Photos may be purchased from PhotoBox