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21 October 2013

Force 7 from New South Wales

The Leyland P76 is very much a cult car within British Leyland circles; a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of our erstwhile national car maker. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the company with a genuine rival to domestic cars like like the Ford Falcon, the Holden Kingswood, and the Chrysler Valiant. I would recommend reading the fantastic
AROnline archive on the P76 story here; the main reason we are riffin' about the big Aussie Leyland is the ultra rare Force 7 coupé.
Although development had started much earlier alongside the sedan which launched in 1973, the Force 7 coupé was announced in 1974. There was to have been a base six-cylinder Force 7, a more powerful Force 7V with the V8 unit, and a range-topping Tour de Force; all the surviving cars are the midrange Force 7V. It was unusual in that it had full seating for five adults and a large rear hatchback, the first of its kind produced in Australia (even before the Holden Torana LX); it shared few body panels with the sedan.
Unfortunately, the plug was pulled on the loss-making Leyland Australia subsidiary before the P76 could reach fruition and the axe fell on the rest of the range. Only 10 pre-production coupés survived; a total of 58 cars were built for the car's aborted launch, but 48 cars were marched to the crusher. The surviving cars were sold at auction along with the only surviving example (of three built) of the station wagon. All of the coupés sold at auction did not have registration compliance plates fitted to them as final registration testing and approval had not been completed on either station wagon or coupe bodies; the handbooks had even been printed and were offered for mail order sale by the auctioneers. By the time of the factory closure in 1974, a Force 7 was already in England for secret testing, Leyland Australia kept one example and finally donated that coupé to an Australian museum with some other components of the P76 production line after the Zetland factory had closed.

- Amazosan

Pictures from here: check it out!




2 comments:

  1. Hi there, I don't mind you using my photographs (taken at the 2013 All British Day Parramatta) but would you please acknowledge your source - Aussie Old Parked Cars. Thank you, Robert
    PS: Interesting blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Robert; the pictures were found in a FB group with no accreditation; but it's added now.
    PS: Great blog!

    ReplyDelete