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‘I absolutely love this particular car which took me over 20 years to secure, so it’s going nowhere’. Ian’s 1975 Austin Allegro 1300 Super is certainly an eye-catching machine, not least the paint finish – ‘“Citron Yellow”; a rare survivor and a colour that is seen on MGs of the same period and the Jubilee Marinas’.

Over the past decades, a great deal of nonsense has been uttered about the ADO67. In that respect, it is intriguing to refer to the press reports on its debut in May 1973. Motor Sport believed ’All in all the Allegro is the best small car ever to come out of British Leyland’. Motor regarded the 1750 Sport Special as ‘pretty good value at £1,366’ although ‘in some detail respects it is rather disappointing. Its success, however, we do not doubt’.

Similarly, Autocar reviewed the 1300 Super and thought it was ‘bound to be a very popular new model’, and two years later, Tony Bastable seemed rather taken with the Estate

Leyland commissioned a splendid PR film narrated (of course) by Patrick Allen

While Clive Richardson’s description of the press launch deserves to be quoted in full:

Like some glamorous actress British Leyland’s Austin Allegro made its debut to the press in a glare of brilliant theatrical lighting in a huge convention hall near Marbella, Southern Spain, a couple of months ago. As distractingly gorgeous model girls displayed the cars on the circular stage in a beautifully executed four-wheel ballet, Lord Stokes, George Turnbull and Filmer Paradise gave sales speeches which would have had the most hardened sales executives viewing them with admiration. This was to be the motor car which no family man could be without, a pearl in a sea of mundane family cars, the manufacturers of which would tear their hair in anguish as their sales slumped to the onslaught of this new Longbridge wonder. It was a superb piece of show business and at least temporarily convincing even to the least gullible amongst us.

Mr. Cole acquired his Austin around seven years ago and has almost inevitably had to endure more than his share of received “wisdom”. ‘One that is often repeated is that they twist if you Jack them up. Another common one, although not totally ludicrous, is “they all have square steering wheels”’. In fact, BL only fitted the Allegro with the infamous “Quartic” wheel until 1975.

Ian reflects that his Super ‘evokes memories in people, and they are generally good, they are inexpensive to run and maintain, but good ones are no longer cheap. For me personally, I like styling despite the compromises Harris Mann had to make’. The Citron Allegro is a fascinating example of everyday motoring in the 1970s.

With Thanks To: Ian Cole

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We have links with some of the top classic car clubs around the country and some of our policies even offer discounts of up to 25% for club members.

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