Events : LEJoG in a Princess 1300

Here at AROnline we love the ADO16 and long road trips – why not combine both?

Alexander Boucke has some plans…

Our Vanden Plas Princess 1300, nearly ready to celebrate.

As you will probably know the Morris 1100 was launched nearly 50 years ago, and to celebrate this, the 1100 Club will hold a big party at the National Rally, taking place at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon on the weekend of 11-12th August. When club member Dean Oakey proposed to do a road trip from Land’s End to John o’Groats and then back finishing at the museum in Gaydon to show and prove the ability of these fine little cars over a year ago, I was immediately bitten. I love long road trips, in particular when I have the chance to take one of my favourite cars!

The rest of the family did not need to be persuaded too much, so by the end of next week, we’ll set off in Karin’s Vanden Plas 1300 heading for Cornwall – about 600 miles from our hometown. The car will not only have to prove reliable on the long run, but also have to carry all the stuff to keep a family of four happy for a week – no mean task, but with some creative packing and using all the available storage area, I know this will work just fine.

From now on we will keep you informed about the progress of preparations and the big journey itself.

Alexander Boucke

12 Comments

  1. Good luck- will look forward to hearing of your adventure.

    Always had a soft spot for the frankly rather dotty VDP 1300. And yours looks like a real peach.

  2. Yer bonkers. Go for it, so long as it doesn’t end up in some John Cleese/Clockwise like farce LOL

      • Hallo Alexander, ich habe mir gerade einen Riley 1300 MK II LHD gekauft. Weißt Du wieviele LHD produziert wurden und wieviele es in Deutschland noch gibt? Für eine Antwort wäre ich Dir dankbar. Mit freundlichem Gruß Rüdiger Ortmann

        • Hello Rüdiger,
          congrats to your purchase. The Riley would seem to be the most rare ADO16 variant in LHD form. I do not know if it was officially for sale in Germany, but surely not as a MkII. These have been available in the Netherlands, but were also extremely rare there. Your’s is the first one I hear of here in Germany.

  3. I always liked the ADO16 and particularly the MG, Riley & VDP versions. Your model looks really classey… Take care and good luck

  4. Alexander you nutter! Should you need assistance in sure myself and the raft of ARonline readers can help, good luck with the adventure!

  5. Did Cleese have it in for the ADO16? The Fawlty Towers ‘damn good thrashing’ incident and wrecking one in the film ‘Clockwise’

  6. Alexander – my first thought when seeing the above photo was “What a magnificent car!”

    Good luck for the trip or rather, marathon.

    Your comment regards packing the car reminded me of my parents’ tale of a long camping trip in France with a baby (me) and a toddler (my sister). The car accomodating the family and all their stuff? A Beetle!

  7. You’ll have awesome fun- I just took a 65 1100 from Sydney, NSW to Melbourne, Vic then from there to Cairns, Qld via the Strzlecki track and Cameron corner and innamincka in far west Qld, then from cairns back to Sydney- 9200km in a fortnight. Never missed a beat!

  8. I saw the sister to this car on a country lane yesterday complete with Webasto sun roof. Looked fantastic

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