Kurt Schley of the MGB V8 Newsletter was kind enough to put me in
contact
with a couple from Australia with a vast knowledge of the P76\Buick\Rover V8.
Like it or not, this is what they have to say. It's long, but interesting.
I'll keep them annonymous for now.
Greg
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Hi Greg
(We) are long standing car enthusiasts. We were in fact in our late
twenties
when the P38 (Oops, I mean P76, well it was only half a car) was launched.
I am English and as a young man I had the pleasure of seeing better
times for
BMC when they still made cars of quality. By trade, I am a motor mechanic and
I had the good fortune to do my time on Jaguars. Once again when Jaguar was
Jaguar and plastic was a new word. (My wife) is Hungarian and as cars were
only for "Party" members in post war communist Hungary, (her) car involvement
did not start until her family jumped the border and made it to Australia.
Now before we condemn Leyland, it might be best if we tell you two
things.
Firstly, I have an evil sense of humor, so please do not be offended at some
of my remarks. Secondly, I am very old fashioned and very much against
change. I seriously believe we have come too far too quick and we will pay
the price. Computers are of course on my pet hate list. As for the Net, well
I believe the world governments should band together and ban it.
We were, therefore horrified when we saw that you had been
communicating with
Kurt by e-mail instead of the correct "snail mail" as followers of the web
call it. We knew if we wrote to Kurt and asked for your address then he would
have to e-mail you. Not wishing to be a bad influence and encourage him, we
decided to accept a friends offer and e-mailed you. You will realize that
this is "against the grain" for us and therefore this is twice we have e-
mailed you. Being the first and last time. From now on, it's strictly snail
mail.
Now to business. Kurt has exchanged letters and information with us for
several years. We have learnt an immense amount from both Kurt and his MG V8
Newsletter. In turn, we have relayed onto Kurt our limited knowledge of the
P76 and performance engineering. All of which he has no doubt relayed to you
as it would fit on a postage stamp.
Basically, we have taken a serous look at the P76-Buick 350 combo.
However,
it would, in our opinion, be a torque engine and this does not suit our
application. Plus we had very serious concerns with regards to reliability.
With regards to ourselves, we are not "one eyed" and an assortment of
cars
fill our motor shed. However, Rovers and in particular the little P6B are our
principle love. The P6B started life as the P6 or Rover 2000 in 1963. In
early 1965, Rover obtained the rights from Buick to build the all alloy 215
and it became the Rover 3500. Then in 1968 a reworked Rover 2000 now fitted
with the alloy V8 was released as the 3500 or P6B. A year earlier Rover also
reworked their big three liter saloon, known as the P5, to become the three
and a half liter or P5B. The "B" as you may have guessed is for "Buick".
Also in 1967, Rover Cars, England's finest independent, had the
misfortune to
be forced into being swallowed up by "Leyland", a British disaster second to
none.
Now turning to the P76. At the time of the Leyland take over, Rover
had a
new big car (midsize in the USA) on the drawing board. Leyland had also
rolled Jaguar and it was felt that the new Rover would be strong competition
for the XJ6 Series One, so Rover was forced to shelve it.
Rover also built a very snappy V8 mid-engined sports car, which had huge
possibilities. Likewise, Leyland forced its abandonment to protect the Jaguar
E-Type. Meanwhile down under, Australia was moving to midsize cars. The
General had introduced an all-new big-bodied Holden to challenge Ford's new
big Falcon, while Chrysler fought back with an all new big bulbous Valiant.
The Leyland line up was typical of everything Leyland did, it was pathetic. A
new car was needed quickly, before the big three put Leyland completely out of
business.
It is said that Leyland, in England, sent over the plans for the
proposed new
big Rover to Leyland Australia to form the basis for a new big car for
Australia. There are however many different stories about the birth of the
P76 and interestingly no one person seems to want to own up and admit
responsibility.
If the original plans were the P8 Rover then in true Leyland tradition
the
Australian division drained every bit of goodness out of the design to make it
"suitable" for Australian conditions and production. It should be said,
however, that the P76 had possibilities and a lot of interesting features.
Unfortunately, Leyland Australia got it wrong. Personally, because Leyland
had such a bad track record, I believe that if Ford, Chrysler or the General
had built the P76 and developed it properly, it could have been a good car.
Unfortunately, it was an absolute disaster.
Our concern in this letter is the P76 motor and not the car. However,
to
understand the motor you need to have a basic understanding of the chaotic
Leyland Company and the unfortunate P76. The formation the British Leyland is
also not a concern. What is a concern is the fact that they had the world at
their feet initially. A mixed blend of misfortune and stupidity saw the whole
thing turn into a massive disaster. Many fine car manufacturers were either
lost or badly crippled by it.
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