Aston Martin in Trouble
In
1972 Aston Martin was in trouble. The company needed capital and a new model but it couldn't really afford to re-tool. The DBS V8 at $29,000 was losing sales fast to the Jensens which ranged between $22,000 and $26,000 and which were patently better cars for customers who had this much cash but wanted to look and feel good rather than drive the wheels off their new executive toy. At the time Aston wqs a good example of a company that was failing to keep the customers won when it went racing. One man who was a staunch Aston fan and had been since he was racing them was
Innes Ireland, the colorful ex-GP driver, ex-journalist, who in 1972 was co-ordinating a project with Aston Martin and BRM to build a mid-engined 3-litre V12 GT to go chasing the Porsche and Dino market at around $15,000 in
1974. (It took either a brave or a stupid man to project prices three years ahead even back in the 1970s!
BRM was then building the VI2 engine - a 2-valve version of the V12 used in the formula 1 cars - and the 5-speed gearboxes, and these units were to be shipped to Newport Pagnell to be assembled. Aston Martin desperately need a new engine — the DBS V8 still used the head designs from the straight-6 and that dated back to 1949 and a Lagonda engine designed by W. O. Bentley! Not that that was such a bad thing, but it didn't keep pace or make financial sense when you were trying to compete with the American V8s in the likes of the Jensen.
Renault Enter The Mini Market
The other side of the channel and Renault were getting into the Mini market in
1972 with the new baby
Renault 5 - it launched in France in March 1972, England in October 1972 and Australia early in
1973. It had a 956 cc engine driving the front wheels and a top speed of 84 mph. It was a 4/5 seater 2-door, with an upward opening tail-gate to convert the 5 into a mini-wagon. Such was this clever design that many wondered why Fiat didn't do the same with the 127.
It was in 1972 that "Personalised" registration plates really became popular in England, with columns of classifieds appearing in the classifieds ads (paper based in those days, not like the
Unique Cars and Parts Classifieds free online ads!). The only catch was if you wanted your initials, you had to buy the car the plate was attached to and hang on to it for a fixed period of time (we believe it was 2 years, but happy to be corrected) before you could switch the plates on to your own car. A story at the time was that a pub-owner sold his 1961 Austin Cambridge for $2000 odd to another publican who wanted it for the number plate - RU18 - $2000 being a huge amount at the time.
Chrysler UK has stirred in 1972, after a long slumber. There were rumors of a new Hunter model to be called the GL5 and fitted with the Holbay engine from the Rapier HI20. Because this hot engine was to be fitted into the standard Hunter shell the price came down to around $3000 which meant it was targeting the 2-litre Cortina. Triumph were also not keeping very tight lipped about their next sports car - the Lynx.
New Models From The Continent
IT MUST have been the European spring that stirred European manufacturers out of their 1971/72 slumber. Top of the list came the big surprise from Mercedes — a really good secret for an extension of the 200/250 range. The body shapes were much the same, but four new models with the suffixes 280, 280E, 280C, and 280CE got a revamped 2.8 litre straight six with twin overhead camshafts! It was a big, big surprise. Apparently Mercedes thought the sturdy six-cylinder still had plenty of life left, and instead of throwing it out in favor of a complete swing to the odd-sounding V8, they settled on the revamp of the smooth sixes.
Available with either carburettor or Bosch Electronic fuel-injection, power increased between 10 and 12.5 percent on the DIN scale - to 160 bhp and 180 bhp (or if you like the old exaggerated Yankee SAE figure, now almost disallowed, 180/210 bhp). The standard 280S Model with the single OHC delivered 140 (DIN) bhp on the same (9 to 1) compression ratio and carbies. The fuel-injected 280SE gave 160 bhp — so the improvement in output looked well worthwhile. Naturally, performance went up too. The 280 SE and 280C covered 0-62 mph in 10.6 seconds and the 280E and 280 CE fuel injection version got there almost a second quicker (12.5 sees and 10.5 sees were the old figures for the single cam motor). Top speed was correspondingly higher (Mercedes-Benz was obviously fed up with every Tom, Dick — and in particular BMW 3.0 and 3.0 CSI — leaving them for dead on the Autobahnen).
Top speed of the carburettor versions went up from around 112 mph to 118 mph and that of the fuel-injected versions from 112 mph to a rather sporting 125 mph. Brakes and tyre sizes were increased to take the higher cruising speeds. Body styles were much the same with the two door coupe and the four door sedans.
Ford Consul/Granada
1972 Also saw the release of the new
Ford Consul/Granada series which was one of the best packages from Ford in a long time. The Consul/Granadas with their V4 and V6 power units were replacements for the Mark Four Zephyr/Zodiacs. And that's about the only thing they had in common. In handling, ride and comfort they were superb. They looked right — and mostly they were right. The Granada was considered to be the first of the "International" cars that was a genuine success story.
At launch there were 3 main versions of the Granada, a rather dull 81.5 (DIN) bhp 2-litre V4 Consul to the Granada GXL 3-litre 138 (DIN) bhp V6. The small-engined version was crippled by emission control regulations, so was strictly a fleet special. The top-of-the-range V6 was in another league, either in stick shift or automatic form. Its performance was fabulous - cruising at 100 mph you could wind back the sliding roof and hardly hear a rumble and certainly not a touch of buffeting. And if it rained, Ford invented an ingenious method of lifting the rear of the sliding roof without opening it for better ventilation. This way it was almost as quiet as when the roof is completely closed.
At the ton (and this car was capable of 110 mph), the quiet ride and lack of windrush made it feel more like 70 mph. Acceleration wasn't to be sneezed at — 0-50 mph came up in under eight seconds with either the automatic or the manual. For both, this was only one second slower than the XJ-6. Size-wise the new Granada's were bigger inside and smaller outside than the Mark Fours they replaced. The brakes were big and combined with the Michelin ZX radials, they pulled up straight and true. Handling was a delight and the power-assisted rack and pinion steering (standard on the GXL) had resistance according to cornering speed. There was sufficient feel coming through to know what was happening in the directional department.
The suspension with its semi-trailing arms with coil springs at the rear and double wishbones and coil springs at the front, was now up with the best. You could really push the Granada and it kept on going through the tightest corner with an absence of roll that puts it right up in the BMW/Rover/Mercedes class — at which it was aimed. In fact, on those big 185 by 14 inch Michelins, the grip in the dry was little short of fantastic for such a big, softly-suspended car. Even on short acquaintance, you would find you could rush into an ever-tightening corner and think it had either got to tighten up on the steering and breakaway, or plough straight on. But it didn't. And the ride is also terrific.
There were some poor points. The dashboard was strictly Detroit in the Forties and Sixties — and lousy. The instruments were okay, but set too deep down in tunnels. The tatty woodwork didn't match that from Rover, BMW, Mercedes and The Rest. The price basic was $A2362 which was fair value for money.
Fiat Joins The Space Race
1972 Was also the year Fiat launched the three-door Fiat 127. In standard form, the 127 offers 13 cu. ft. of baggage space in addition to five passenger seats. The new l27 with its roof-hinged rear door, and low loading access to the interior load-space, gave just under 13 cubic feet with all seats in use. But if the rear seat was folded flat, there was a handy 35 cu. ft. of useable space. A totally unobstructed baggage compartment was achieved by recessing the rear arm-rest into the side trim panel and finding space under the bonnet for the jack and tool-kit where they joined the spare wheel. Performance of around the high eighties was unchanged.
Topless Jaguar
It was in 1972 that an XJ6 drophead made its appearance. The idea was that of the Honorable Gaetan Duval, Lord Mayor of Port Louis (the capital of Mauritius) who was also foreign affairs minister of the island. He wanted an open car for the Queen's tour of the city during May 1972. There just wasn't a suitable mount available, so Duval went to see Dennis Taylor, the boss of Taylor-Smith and Company, Mauritius specialists in marine engineering conversions. The upshot was the suggestion of an XJ6 convertible.
Taylor tore out the interior, re-inforcing the panels by forming a one-sixteenth-inch galvanised iron sheet' on the main longitudinal structural members and cross-members right up to the central pillar to waistline level, and fore and aft of the doors on either side. The car was completely rubbed down to the metal and resprayed. Taylor — a great Jaguar enthusiast himself — supervised the conversion and reported later: "The car was tested on very rough roads and the flexibility could be expressed as nil."
The car was completely re-upholstered, and the rear seat raised to line-up with the new hood tonneau. A three-quarter-inch stainless steel cross-member was fitted between the door pillars — not as a structural member but for the Queen and Prince Philip to hold on to during the tour of the city of Port Louis.
Hot Hillman Hunter
In
1972 from Chrysler came a sporting
Hillman Hunter called the "100 Plus" Hillman Hunter GLS. It had the same motor as the Sunbeam Rapier H120 — the Holbay-tuned 1725cc four-cylinder which, with 40DCOE
carbies, gave a handy output of 93 (DIN)' bhp at 5200 rpm, a 0-60 mph in 10.5 sees 40-60 mph in top gear of 8.8 sees (8.2 if you used third in the close-ratio gearbox) and a top speed around 103 mph. The GLS was a luxury high performance sporting sedan with new seat trim in woven nylon cloth and many other new goodies like reclining seats and wood veneer cappings on doors. Suspension was Rapier with power assisted disc-drum brake combination and 5J 13in wheels and radial ply tyres. Basic price in the UK was $A2118.
