Anything but an average company? I rarely have much reason to be grateful to my 14 year old self, but searching through some old papers at the weekend, I was delighted by my youthful prescience in keeping a Financial Times article from 26 June 1973, the day of the Leyland P76’s launch in Australia. Don’t [...]

Back in 1974/74 Leyland Australia were on the cusp of some exciting new developments. WHEELS magazine managed to get wind of them (from an insider?) and printed its summary of upcoming events. Article reproduced from WHEELS, November 1973 INFORMATION on Leyland’s Model A is marked Top Secret. Its very existence is barely acknowledged and it [...]

The P76 was thoroughly evaluated for sale in the UK, with a view to be sold under the Vanden Plas marque name, but after consideration, the plan was dropped as the gap between the Rover SD1 and the Jaguar XJ6 3.4 was far too narrow to justify the expense of local homologation. P76s were spotted [...]

The Leyland P82 would have supplemented the P76 and Force 7, and would have provided an up-to-date replacement for the Leyland Marina. Writing exclusively for www.austin-rover.co.uk, Industry expert JACK YAN fills in the blanks to reveal the cruel end to a promising Antipodean project… Compact future lost IN the mid-1960s, BMC Australia, keen to get [...]

The P76 Sedan look set for a successful run in Australia, and during its development programme, an estate version, pickup and this – the Force 7 coupe – were developed. When the fortunes of Leyland Australia took a turn for the worse, the coupe became a victim of rationalization. Only a few survive to this [...]

In Australia, the P76 was billed as ‘Anything but average.’ Unfortunately (and unjustifiably so) it also turned out to be anything but successful. Classic Car Weekly’s Richard Gunn samples Leyland’s legendary leviathan from down under… Words and pictures: Richard Gunn P76 delivered a premature P45 TYPICAL. You wait for a Leyland P76 for decades, and [...]

In 1973, Leyland Australia announced that all former Austin and Morris cars would be replaced by a sweeping range of new Leyland badged cars. The Morris Marina was treated to an Antipodean re-engineering effort, receiving the E4 and E6 engines and being relaunched as the Leyland Marina, but more ambitiously, BLMC wanted to compete with [...]

Oh, so similar under the skin? THE conspiracy theory is a great thing, don’t you think? Usually conjured up by fertile imaginations, conspiracy theories are used to explain away conventional wisdoms, and in doing so, challenge what we hold close to our hearts as solid facts. Take for instance, the Rover 75 – for years [...]

The Leyland P76 continues to command a strong and loyal following in Australia, but in the UK, the car is practically unknown. For those involved in trivia, it perhaps should be better known than it is because, in the modern era, it is the only car to have been sold only under the Leyland marque. [...]

By Stuart Marshall A new British Leyland car announced today has been designed, developed and is being made in Australia but will be available in Britain next year, priced between £3,500 and £4,000. Called the Leyland P76. it is the first car to bear the Leyland name since the famous Straight Eight of the 1920s. [...]