View from the road Industrial backdrop Apostrophe warning More warnings MG TF shell Facelift 75 bumper Stores galore Asbestos warnings Plenty of parts Seat testing Crash test car A closer look Control equipment RDX60 prototype Going nowhere Rear axle Wind tunnel Rover 75 Engine evaluation K-Series and ‘box Dyno control panel The test rig MIRA [...]

Some snapshot images of Longbridge and its surroundings as taken by Sniff Petrol’s Richard Porter and an insider. The signs of neglect at Longbridge become more widespread, and as KEITH ADAMS explains, it’s difficult not to succumb to feelings of doom and gloom after viewing these pictures of the plant – inside and out – [...]

R75/ZT production line The railway lines …a closer look The elevated tunnel The lines are silent… Crushed bodyshells Nothing but scrap now Bell and Howell no more The silence is tangible Records galore No more meetings… Cut up for photography The clock still ticks over… Sodium backlighting Old West Works number one It’s a big [...]

By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent British Leyland is seeking planning permission to build an engine factory costing an estimated £15m at Longbridge, near Birmingham, the group’s biggest car manufacturing complex. The Department of Trade and Industry has already granted an industrial development certificate for the project. To make way for the 750ft- long building [...]

By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent Lord Stokes, chairman of British Leyland, has won his long struggle with the Government to be allowed to expand his group’s car production in the Midlands rather, than in northern development areas. An industrial development certificate has been issued permitting major expansion of Rover at Solihull, Warwickshire. This is [...]

By Clifford Webb British Leyland is spending £1m immediately to reorganize and modernize parts of its troubled truck and tractor plant at Bath- gate, West Lothian. Only two months ago it was feared that a nine week strike by 3,000 employees, the most recent in a long line of labour disputes, would lead to permanent [...]