Cars - Austin Allegro

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	Cars - Austin Allegro

The Austin Allegro was a model of car manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 to 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti in 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent.

Design

The Allegro was designed as the replacement for the popular and innovative 1960s design, the Austin 1100/1300, designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, who also penned the radical Mini and Morris Minor. In comparison to the 1100/1300, a generally well-received design, the Allegro is widely regarded as a poor design in almost every significant respect. As with the Morris Marina, the car can be seen with hindsight as symptomatic of the enormous difficulties facing BL during that period. The key factor that BL appear to have missed is that a much more useful and popular form of car, the hatchback, was emerging in Europe, with designs such as the VW Golf. These cars would go on to dominate the market for small family cars in the space of a very few years, yet BL doggedly stuck to the more traditional and less versatile booted design when they launched the Allegro. This was because of internal company politics; it had been decided that the Austin Maxi should have a hatchback as its unique selling point and that no other car was allowed one. This short-sighted decision hamstrung both the Allegro and the Leyland Princess, both designs naturally suited to a hatchback yet not given one.

The Allegro followed the engineering convention of front wheel drive, using the familiar A-Series engine with sump-mounted gearbox. The higher-specification models used the overhead camshaft E-Series engine (from the Maxi), in 1.5 and 1.75 litre editions. The two-box saloon bodyshell was suspended using the new Hydragas suspension system (derived from the previous Hydrolastic system used on the 1100/1300).

Stylistically, it went against the sharp-edged styling cues that were becoming fashionable (largely led by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro), and featured rounded panel work. The original styling proposal, by Harris Mann, had the same sleek, wedge-like shape of the Princess, but because BL management wanted to install the bulky E-Series engine, and the heating system from the Marina, the bodyshell began to look more and more bloated and tubby, and eventually bore little resemblance to Mann's original concept—originally thought up as an Austin 1100 reskin. This appearance—as well as BL's faith in it as a model that would help turn the company around—led to it earning the early nickname of the "flying pig". The car was offered in the usual drab range of BL colours—notably beige, brown and green.

There was also an upmarket version sold as the Vanden Plas 1500 and 1700 which features a prominent grille at the front. The Allegro name was not officially used on this version.

The early models also featured a curious "quartic" steering wheel—that is, nominally a rounded square. This was touted as a sales feature though its merits were questionable—some felt that it was introduced because insufficient room had been allowed between the driver's legs and the base of the wheel.

Dimensions

overall length 152 inches (3852 mm)
overall width 63 inches 1613 mm)
height 55 inches (1398 m)
wheelbase 96 inches (2442 mm)
track 53 inches (1346 mm)
typical unladen weight 1915 lb (869 kg)
tyre size 145 x 13 (155 x 13 on 1750 and Sport)

Reputation

The Allegro gained a reputation for unreliability and poor build quality—another unfortunate nickname applied to it was the "All-Aggro". The car was somewhat underdeveloped at the time of its launch; a litany of design flaws plagued the early cars, and some well-publicised Allegro failings (some apocryphal, but widely believed) were:

The rear windscreen could pop out if the car was jacked up in the wrong place with a trolley jack - symptomatic of poor torsional rigidity.

Urban legend has it that Allegros were banned from the Mersey Tunnels as they could not be towed back out in the event of breakdown without bending in the middle.

One of the launch cars snapped in half while being filmed doing stunts in a quarry for a television commercial.

Wheel bearings were prone to premature failure, and rear wheels could (and did...) fly off. This has been attributed to mistakes made by service mechanics in the early years of production, who over-tightened the bearings. The Allegro's bearings were set more loosely than its predeccesor, the Austin 1100, and this caused some errors. It is true that the bearings and hubs were easily damaged by even slight over-tightening.

Much fuss was made in the press when tests showed that the Allegro had a better drag coefficient going backwards rather than forwards. Whilst this is true many other cars, especially those with sloping 'hatchback' rear ends and vertical radiators at the front also are more aerodynamic in reverse.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Austin Allegro ]

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