Ryton’s finest
The Avenger was originally built at a new assembly line at the newly expanded Ryton plant, near Coventry. Ryton was essentially an assembly operation, because the bodies and pressed panels were shipped by rail from the Linwood plant in Scotland and the engine/gearbox assemblies came from the company’s Stoke plant.
This was actually a neat arrangement (well, it made the best of a bad situation) because the trains carrying bodies to Ryton did not return to Linwood empty, as they carried Imp engines and gearboxes. In 1976, Avenger production was moved to Linwood, meaning that the majority of the operation fell under one roof, thus cutting logistical costs.
- Concept and prototypes : Ford Capri (1966-1968) - 25 March 2021
- Concepts and prototypes : Avenger R429 Coupé (1969-1971) - 19 June 2014
- Geneva 2012 : Genève aime Morgan - 10 March 2012
I started my first job in 1972 and my employers had just taken delivery of a new Avenger 1500DL Estate car in metallic green. It was quite fast in its day, but noisy (boomy) at motorway speed. It had black vinyl seats (hot in summer!) but, nevertheless, did the job and was changed for a Cortina 1.6 Estate in 1976.
I preferred the look of the original Avengers to the later Chrysler ones.
I didn’t realise the Avenger’s body panels were pressed at Linwood.
Does the body in the middle picture have one hell of a dent in the front wing???
A 2 yr old ‘Cricket’ (in Canada) was my best friend’s 1st car in ’76. A gutless automatic. You have no rear end pics here but that’s what made the car distinctive was the ‘L’ shape light clusters. Ryton = Ryton on Dunsmore