I still haven’t completely got over the disappointment of 17 May 1973. That was the day the Austin Allegro was launched. I was 15 at the time, and my excitement at this car’s release confirmed my growing obsession with British Leyland, an obsession of the kind saner people experience when supporting a football team. Some live or die by the fortunes of Chelsea or Arsenal. For me it was the machinations – and there were many, often blazoned across the newspapers – of the British Leyland Motor Corporation.
The disappointment stemmed from the first drive verdicts on BL’s new ‘Car for Europe’, most of them less than positive about a car that was supposed to replace the nation’s favourite model, and a long way short of the world-beating vehicle that might reasonably have been hoped for from the makers of the Mini and the 1100/1300.
Not that the Allegro was all bad, and neither were the verdicts. Car magazine, increasingly my favourite among the shoals of motoring mags thumbed through in my local WH Smiths, was enthusiastic enough to run a supplement on the new Austin. A fine photoshoot made it look pretty good, and surely strong opposition to the best cars in this class, the Alfa Romeo Alfasud and the Citroën GS. The VW Golf, in case you’re wondering, was still a year away.
