Disaster Down Under - Leyland P76

Hello again! :D

Something I was very eager to talk about, and that was the demise of Britain's car influence in Australia during the early 1970s, when after years of near constant sales success, British Leyland, through the provision of one model, undid all their good will Down Under, with the Leyland P76, a car with great promise, but built so incompetently it left Leyland Australia in ruins.

Special thanks to Dave Carey - Street Machine & Garage of Awesome for his original article posted in May 2019 which is where I gathered a majority of my information from to help create this video. I recommend that you have a read of the article as there are many interesting and fun little nuggets of info that didn't make it into the video:

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.

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Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D

References:
- AROnline (and their respective sources)
- WhichCar (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)

[williammannix]

I worked on the assembly line at Ieyland in 1973\ 74, as a leading hand on the 6 cylinder line and also did overtime on the V8 line when needed. There was never any shoddy workmanship that I can remember and did our work to the best of our ability. Yes there was a lot of different nationalities, but we all got along fine and it was good employment for all. I remember these times fondly

[videowilliams]

My father bought and loved- for a time- this great big orange boat of a P76 when it first came out, and as a kid, I liked the sporty looks of the thing and the fact it had a big V-8. He had no trouble with its drivetrain but over a span of several years the vehicle basically fell to pieces around that engine. His favourite story was about some piece of trim around the windscreen which was rattling as he briefed a business colleague on the way to a serious meeting, to the point where it was flapping loose in the wind, and without stopping talking, he just calmly put an arm out the window and grabbed it as it came off, put it down beside him and kept speaking as if it were nothing :D It should be noted there's still love for the remaining P76's precisely because they got so famous for being so shit. The Australian Edsel!

[madmick]

I remember the interior concept drawings of the design team hanging in my grandparents garage/work shop.My grandfather was one of the interior design heads and helped make the first prototypes interior. Upon retirement he was given his entire work station including sketch and design station along with his sewing machine.

[stcenturyozman]

Good description of a good idea disastrously executed. I almost bought one new – but settled for a used Rover P5B instead.

The Australian assembly plant was at ZETland (ZET rhymes with YET), not ZEETland.

[GaryAllpike]

I had a P76. A V8 one. With a 4 barrel manifold and a 465 Holley it actually went quite well. They only weighed 1200kg. Of course it leaked like a sieve and ultimately rusted almost in half. Fond memories none the less. The alloy V8 was 4.4l standard but with a crank from a Ford Y block (if I recall correctly) you could stretch them out to 5.0l. The engines are still quite sought after being all alloy. You could stand over an assembled engine and with your hands in the inlet manifold lift it off the ground. I also had a 2.6l 6cyl Marina but that's another story! Thanks for the blast from the past Rory!

[kundeleczek]

I enjoy your style, pure information, no gimmicks. Most info channels and YouTubers should lern from you.

[leokimvideo]

A car that was killed off by more amazing cars from Japan. Datsun 1600, 180B, Toyota Corona. And these days the P76 is a priceless collectable car.

[TIDYWAZZA]

Over many years this old man owned & loved 15 P76 cars. Loved most, hated the odd occurring faults. all long gone.Still have 5 Targa Florio mag wheels in the shed. Wish I had the money & opportunity to own another now

[chrisjohnson]

Fabulous video Ruairidh, Didnt know about them purchasing some Holdens and a couple of other snippets. Great work!

[landcrab]

Very compact dialogue and pretty accurate assessment of Leyland Australia’s demise. Top notch program

[ML-vyxo]

This is a beautifully, thoroughly and fluently expressed account of the P76 saga, thank you!

[BrenTravisMusician]

Found the channel by accident and just love your car videos. The video length is perfect, like a documentary and your research is superb.

[darylcheshire]

I remember the P76 being advertised on TV, I remember the windscreen wipers were hidden in a recess under the bonnet and the huge boot space.
There was this ad on TV where the parking inspector couldn’t lift the windscreen wiper to attach the parking ticket.

[ohcamsrazor]

Well done, this is an excellent and accurate description of the events that occurred, given it’s only 14 minutes long. Very well done

[PaulinesPastimes]

Excellent video. I have often wondered how the Australian factory would have prospered if it hadn't had to dance to the tune of the UK headquarters and been shut down prematurely. The P76 had so much potential. Cheers

[sarjim]

Thanks for this one. I know zero about Australian BL cars, but I saw a similar collapse of British designed and engineered cars in the Caribbean, with the former colonies and commonwealths going from a nearly 100% British car stock in 1970 to maybe 10% in 1985. The Japanese stepped in and mopped up the Caribbean car market, and not just from Britain. US carmakers also had an opportunity to step in and serve the whole Caribbean car and truck market if they could have ever figured out how to make the right size vehicles and get the steering wheel on the "correct" side.

[mrmullett]

They were used extensively in NZ as Taxi cabs. Very nice ride and very popular in that role.

[torresalex]

Fascinating video. I also had no idea that Aussie and Kiwi cars had such big differences under the skin, but then I watched a whole series of videos reviews of AU and NZ-made BL cars on Hubnut.

[traintakes]

Nice upload RM, showed this to my old man as well who loves his cars, both enjoyed watching!

[Tiger]

A very well researched and presented video, as an Aussie I really enjoyed this one. A few things you didn't mention that I think are relevant below.
1: The boot was so spacious you could literally fit a 44 UK gallon drum in there lol.
2: The Aussie Marina could be optioned with the same 2.6 litre straight six and was branded the Marina Super.
3: According to all sources the stunt of crushing the majority of Force 7V's to force the price up backfired spectacularly, most sold at or below retail price at auction and if I remember correctly at least 1 was passed in and sold 2 days later for an undisclosed sum.