The small saloons
The 1960s brought another new direction for Vanden Plas, when a commission from Fred Connolly, whose company supplied hides to all the top motor companies, led to the production of a luxuriously trimmed version of the new Morris 1100.
By the end of the decade, the Vanden Plas range had been reduced to just the 1300 version of this car (although the Kingsbury factory also produced the Daimler DS420 limousine). When producton of the 1300 ended in 1974, it was replaced by an upmarket version of the Austin Allegro, the Vanden Plas 1500.
The Morris 1100 produced for Fred Connolly had been extensively retrimmed, with Connolly hide, walnut panels and picnic tables, but when BMC decided to display a Vanden Plas Princess 1100 at the London Motor Show in 1963, the team at Kingsbury set about giving the car a more upmarket look. This initial attempt amounted to nothing more than a new, glitzier front grille, and was rejected in favour of the style that had been established by the Princess 3-litre.
The definitive Vanden Plas Princess 1100 prototype, this is the car which BMC displayed at the 1963 Motor Show. At the time, its purpose was simply to demonstrate the capabilities of Kingsbury workforce, but such was the level of order enquiries received at the show that the company had little option but to manufacture the car. Few changes were made in the transition to the production model, although this car clearly lacks the wraparound rear bumper and rakish rear over riders. Also, its two-tone colour scheme (in this case, Sherwood Green over Dark Green) would be seen on very few production models, which were predominently finished in one colour.
When the Vanden Plas Princess 1300 was replaced in 1974, the new Allegro-based car was simply called the Vanden Plas 1500 (it was later joined by a 1700 version). This was therefore the first Vanden Plas car since the marque has been established in 1960 not to be called a "Princess". This move coincided with the Vanden Plas operation being moved from the Austin-Morris division of BLMC to the Jaguar group, to reflect the fact that two-thirds of VDP's turnover was generated by its Daimler products. The 1500's styling also marked a significant departure from what had become the typical Vanden Plas look, due in no small part to development cost constraints which had dictated that only one panel (the bonnet) could be altered. Vanden Plas MD Roland Fox had sketched the new front end after seeing a prototype Allegro in the early 1970s, taking his inspiration from the Daimler Double-Six.
This 1979 prototype 1500 wears the revised bumpers, spoiler and rear lights of the Allegro 3, but they were not adopted for the Vanden Plas car. (Formerly part of the BMIHT's collection at Gaydon, the above car was sold at the auction held on 29 June 2003; it went for £4650.) Indeed, the 1500 was destined to be the last model produced under the Vanden Plas marque: in 1979, the Kingsbury factory was closed, and production of the 1500/1700 was transferred to the MG plant at Abingdon, until that factory also closed the following year. The Vanden Plas name re-emerged towards the end of 1980, as the top-of-the-range trim designation for the Rover 3500. It was then applied to various Austin-Rover cars throughout the 1980s, and was also used on export-market Jaguars. In February 2002, Rover announced that the name was to be reintroduced on a flagship Rover 75 model.
This page was contributed by Declan Berridge
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