I've always maintained that if the Princes had a Citreon badge on it .. People would be raving about how brilliant the design was.. But as usual we Brits love to Bash our own stuff..
Same with late 80's and 90's Rovers, they were actually pretty good cars, just a crap image and the usual bashing of our own stuff meant they were always doomed.
British snobs, with their Daily Nail, Thelegraph, and Exoress, can't stand driving anything built by British Workig class people and assumed ofcourse that it all involved a lot of greasy rags, fags and cups of tea.. Having never ofcourse been bothered to enter anything remotely resembling a factory.. Those classes ofcourse ultimately got copied by the snobby middle class.
Is awesome how you mix the footage of cars that you like in a car show, with a full history lesson about all of them with smooth transitions. Excelente work 👏
I am in danger of becoming a classic motoring pub bore and sycophant! So I will desist my usual gushing praise, though I do want to say. Ed, that with you easy and relaxing style based on considerable motoring knowledge' you knock the rest of them into a cocked hat. Smooth and informative' I loved it. Thanks! Rob
This video takes me back Ed, I can remember almost as if it was yesterday as a small child growing up seeing all of these older cars. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand. Of course time gives way for no one and that includes me.
A brilliant take of the BL Show, have watched a few videos but this one stands out as you pick your favourite cars of the event and talk about the history of them.
Really enjoyable 13 minutes, packed with information that non BMC/BL/AR/RG anoraks may not be familiar with. My dream BL car would be a Rover 3500s with the SD1 5 speed box. Best looking, best sounding , most comfortable and relaxed high or low speed cruiser.
The diesel engine you mention with the Maestro and also used in the Montego were Perkins lumps and were bullet proof units.Keep them well serviced and they could be good for hundreds of thousands.As you pointed out sadly the cars dissolved as you watched.On a bye note still love the P6 and the Triumph 2000,s.On another bye note the 6 potter Princess engines could snap their camshafts.
Ahhh, I love this video. My fave car is the MG Maestro Turbo (would love to have one day) memories of my Dad's (not so sporty) 1990 Maestro 1.3 LX in two tone white & grey. You also bought back memories of his Wolsely Land Crab which if I remember was an 1800s. Shame there wasn't a 1981 Morris Ital, which he also had 😀
My dad had a 1.3 marina coupe. We used to keep a bottle of water (r whites) for the inevitable overheat that happened on most long runs. It was diabolical. Sorry. Happily my experience with minis was way more positive. My lovely cooper H153 WMB was a joy to drive and I would have it back in a heartbeat ❤
Thank you for posting this video. Really enjoyed the informative voice over and nice to see so immaculate many immaculate examples. Keep up the good work.
This is another great video. Thank you for featuring the 1800 and the 1300. I'm from Canada and I grew up with my Mum having a 1300 and my Dad having an 1800. Now I own an early Mini, I'm restoring an 1800, and I'm looking for a nice Austin America, the US/Canadian version of the 1300.
Excellent revue of the show. It was good to see 'Alex' from 'Alex's Assets' admiring the Rover P6. Looks like you had a great day out - thanks for sharing your unique style of revue. Take care 🙂
Indeed so! I've always admired Ed's crystal-clear enunciation and his almost-always correct pronunciation of names. Today's correct Van den Plas and coupé (never a coop - that's for chickens!) were, however, slightly let down by the "Moway" for Moët. Moët is a Dutch name, and pronounced Mow-et, not like it were a French name with a silent 't'. While Claude Moët was born in France, his family was of Dutch heritage. Over the generations, they kept the original pronunciation of their family name, and in Dutch, the ‘t’ is not silent. Another excellent video!
Yes, I’ve been corrected on Moët already! Strangely, I’ve never heard it pronounced that way, but then again, I don’t drink alcohol, so it isn’t exactly on my radar.
@@TwinCam Good man! I, too, don't drink alcohol - too much of a control freak, and I lose it on booze. In my early 30s, having been teetotal from birth, I tried to get accustomed to alcoholic drinks, but after three years of trying hard I gave up. ☕
I used to drink when I was 16-17, but by the time I was 18 I’d decided it was just expensive and most didn’t taste as good as many soft drinks. Funnily enough, at age 16 I discovered I had a world-beating tolerance for large amounts of booze. Completely wasted on me now 🤣
A good flavour of what was an excellent show. I don't usually comment on these videos but I have to say that this had such a professional feel about it, both the script and the camera work. Well done 👍
I had a 1 litre Metro City in 1990. It was so basic it didn't come with a radio. I was going to the Monsters of Rock concert in summer 1990 in it with 3 passengers and the boot full of luggage, when at an indicated 100mph on the M1, with it screaming it's nuts off down a hill, the rear wheel came off and i watched it overtake us in what seemed like slow motion, before we careered into a ditch.
As always, Ed, a great video. So very interesting hearing you talk about these individual cars. I may be off, but my first choice of the lot would be a Morris Marina 4 door saloon, but in top spec with every optional extra except automatic.
I like them too. The GTa and Sport were smart little things. Strange considering the MG was still about, but they had a much classier character, and I’d guess they were testing the water for the later Rover-badged GTa and GTi.
9:00 Back in 1975, the company I worked for had three gaffers, all of whom bought a Wolseley "Wedge". One maroon, one white and one green. I wish I had photographed them now.
The standardised headlamp capsules on the commercial vehicles are cheaper solution for many companies. It's same in the United States as well. Commercial vehicles get in the minor (or major) mishapes many times, and the headlamp replacement can cost so much money in material and labour. Using the capsules is cheapest and quickest way.
I was going to mention about Princesses not even being called "Princesses" to begin with, but of course you would know that! 😂🤣 The rarest of these old models is the Austin - I know of only one survivor (blue paintwork) but I don't think she's roadworthy at present.
Ahh yes, we were talking about that at the show but I forgot to mention it in the video! We were saying probably Sierra, but I’d guess Capris used the same ‘box?
That’s because it is a Honda Concerto! The R8 and YY were a 50:50 collaboration between Rover and Honda. See my video on a 220 GTi from a couple of months ago for more!
Some great examples. The Metro GS gets my vote. I also notice on the first pan around the beige Metro which looks like it has the larger 15" Maestro/Montego lattice wheels on it and that's something I've always wanted to see. Might be an optical illusion though and be the 14s!
Not quite! They’re standard 13” Metro alloys. From a Turbo, to be precise. Maestros and Montegos did get a very similar alloy, in 14” rather than the Metro’s 13”, and in a different stud pattern, though the K-Series Rover Metro switched to Maestro stud pattern, so from then on the wheels were identical, save for being an inch smaller.
11/10 22 Great stuff - Is this an annual event ? Dates & location please ! It's tragic that this with so much of the UK's engineering & manufacturing heritage that also provided so much skilled employment has disappeared changing today's lifestyles for so many. Curious to know your Dayjob & Daily Drive. Have you considered making a vid' featuring BL's export & overseas manufactured models ? Tough call !
Ed, the 16v modded A Series in the Marina was a real wow! I've not seen that conversion before. Looked very tasty. Is there any history about it on the Web?
Indeed so. Lots of people put Turbo stickers on their 2.0 EFi. Plus, people on the internet today like to tell people they had one. Chances are, they didn’t.
@@TwinCamI seem to remember it had an mg level trim and finish, but i don't know if it's my mind playing tricks it's been so long.and if I'd known they were so rare at the time I'd have scrutinised it harder, so hard to say. Was nice whatever it was Funnily enough I don't recall the Montego MGs
All lovely cars spoilt in the main by one thing - poor build quality and in some cases under development. Nevertheless fond memories particularly of the Metro range and the Marina 1.3 Coupe. Great video.🙂👍
Sort of. It was based on the Honda Ballade, which was a different model line to the Civic, but heavily based on it. The Ballade was to the Civic what the Orion was to the Ford Escort, basically.
Indeed John. The Ballade also had a Civic front-end, but the Rover had a unique face. Additionally, Rover changed the tune of the suspension because they weren’t happy with Honda’s work, and from ‘86, Honda applied the Rover suspension to their own cars!
A collection of misfits. BL? Did they actually produce a single decent car? MG, Austin, Morris, Riley, Jaguar all gobbled up and spewed forth as shoddy stains on the memory of once great marques.
Strange thing to say. From Jaguar there was the XJ and XJ-S. From Rover were the Range Rover and SD1. From Austin-Morris came the Princess and Metro. And that’s just in the years the company was called BL, from 1968 to 1980. To disregard these is lazy at best.
I've always maintained that if the Princes had a Citreon badge on it .. People would be raving about how brilliant the design was.. But as usual we Brits love to Bash our own stuff..
Same with late 80's and 90's Rovers, they were actually pretty good cars, just a crap image and the usual bashing of our own stuff meant they were always doomed.
Agree 100% I'd love a Princess
I think that’s a good point, but I think with both BL and Citroën, a Mercedes-Benz badge would elevate them much further.
British snobs, with their Daily Nail, Thelegraph, and Exoress, can't stand driving anything built by British Workig class people and assumed ofcourse that it all involved a lot of greasy rags, fags and cups of tea.. Having never ofcourse been bothered to enter anything remotely resembling a factory.. Those classes ofcourse ultimately got copied by the snobby middle class.
Is awesome how you mix the footage of cars that you like in a car show, with a full history lesson about all of them with smooth transitions. Excelente work 👏
Thanks mate, very kind of you to say 🙂
Thanks for the tour, I noticed how at 12:30 you got the "Twin Cam" in the vid. Thanks again for the tour......
Takes me back to the good old days
I am in danger of becoming a classic motoring pub bore and sycophant! So I will desist my usual gushing praise, though I do want to say. Ed, that with you easy and relaxing style based on considerable motoring knowledge' you knock the rest of them into a cocked hat. Smooth and informative' I loved it. Thanks!
Rob
Fantastic bit of nostalgia, thanks for showing us these great icons of our motoring past
Wonderful memories thanks greetings from Scotland 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
This video takes me back Ed, I can remember almost as if it was yesterday as a small child growing up seeing all of these older cars. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand. Of course time gives way for no one and that includes me.
A brilliant take of the BL Show, have watched a few videos but this one stands out as you pick your favourite cars of the event and talk about the history of them.
Ah memories of the BL workshop.
Really enjoyable 13 minutes, packed with information that non BMC/BL/AR/RG anoraks may not be familiar with. My dream BL car would be a Rover 3500s with the SD1 5 speed box. Best looking, best sounding , most comfortable and relaxed high or low speed cruiser.
There was an SD1 there, but it was the rarely-seen diesel SD Turbo!
Fantastic. I've got happy memories of a lot of these cars.
The diesel engine you mention with the Maestro and also used in the Montego were Perkins lumps and were bullet proof units.Keep them well serviced and they could be good for hundreds of thousands.As you pointed out sadly the cars dissolved as you watched.On a bye note still love the P6 and the Triumph 2000,s.On another bye note the 6 potter Princess engines could snap their camshafts.
Your enthusiasm is catchy.
Thanks for featuring my Almond Rover P6 XYU201N in the video 👍
Ahhh, I love this video. My fave car is the MG Maestro Turbo (would love to have one day) memories of my Dad's (not so sporty) 1990 Maestro 1.3 LX in two tone white & grey. You also bought back memories of his Wolsely Land Crab which if I remember was an 1800s. Shame there wasn't a 1981 Morris Ital, which he also had 😀
Pedantry alert!
The Wolseley versions, because history, were badged as the 18/85 and 18/85 S rather than 1800 😅
I did enjoy seeing those Wolseley 18/22’s & the Austin Vanden Plas 1100.
My dad had a 1.3 marina coupe. We used to keep a bottle of water (r whites) for the inevitable overheat that happened on most long runs. It was diabolical. Sorry.
Happily my experience with minis was way more positive. My lovely cooper H153 WMB was a joy to drive and I would have it back in a heartbeat ❤
Thank you for posting this video. Really enjoyed the informative voice over and nice to see so immaculate many immaculate examples. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Danny 🙂
The 75 truly is a good looking car.
Very elegant car, and will be sought after more and more with time !
Thanks for posting this video. Over the years I have owned many BL/Austin cars each with their own personality and foibles
This is another great video. Thank you for featuring the 1800 and the 1300. I'm from Canada and I grew up with my Mum having a 1300 and my Dad having an 1800. Now I own an early Mini, I'm restoring an 1800, and I'm looking for a nice Austin America, the US/Canadian version of the 1300.
Excellent revue of the show. It was good to see 'Alex' from 'Alex's Assets' admiring the Rover P6. Looks like you had a great day out - thanks for sharing your unique style of revue. Take care 🙂
Thanks Michael 🙂
excellent I do love a history lesson so keep up the good work 👌👍
Thanks Darren 🙂
Great whistlestop tour of some lovely BL models of the era. Lovely to hear the Van den Plas pronunciation with the sounded sss at the end as well!
Indeed so! I've always admired Ed's crystal-clear enunciation and his almost-always correct pronunciation of names. Today's correct Van den Plas and coupé (never a coop - that's for chickens!) were, however, slightly let down by the "Moway" for Moët. Moët is a Dutch name, and pronounced Mow-et, not like it were a French name with a silent 't'. While Claude Moët was born in France, his family was of Dutch heritage. Over the generations, they kept the original pronunciation of their family name, and in Dutch, the ‘t’ is not silent.
Another excellent video!
Thanks mate!
The Vanden Plas thing is one of my pet peeves.
Yes, I’ve been corrected on Moët already!
Strangely, I’ve never heard it pronounced that way, but then again, I don’t drink alcohol, so it isn’t exactly on my radar.
@@TwinCam Good man! I, too, don't drink alcohol - too much of a control freak, and I lose it on booze. In my early 30s, having been teetotal from birth, I tried to get accustomed to alcoholic drinks, but after three years of trying hard I gave up. ☕
I used to drink when I was 16-17, but by the time I was 18 I’d decided it was just expensive and most didn’t taste as good as many soft drinks.
Funnily enough, at age 16 I discovered I had a world-beating tolerance for large amounts of booze. Completely wasted on me now 🤣
Fantastic video as usual. Love all these cars, happy memories. Your presentation is fantastic and just gets better and better.
Thanks Andrew, very kind of you to say 🙂
Big fan of the AD016.
A good flavour of what was an excellent show. I don't usually comment on these videos but I have to say that this had such a professional feel about it, both the script and the camera work. Well done 👍
Thanks Paul, very kind of you to say 🙂
I had a 1 litre Metro City in 1990. It was so basic it didn't come with a radio. I was going to the Monsters of Rock concert in summer 1990 in it with 3 passengers and the boot full of luggage, when at an indicated 100mph on the M1, with it screaming it's nuts off down a hill, the rear wheel came off and i watched it overtake us in what seemed like slow motion, before we careered into a ditch.
i liked the marina coupe as it had a devon reg!
As always, Ed, a great video. So very interesting hearing you talk about these individual cars. I may be off, but my first choice of the lot would be a Morris Marina 4 door saloon, but in top spec with every optional extra except automatic.
Thanks as always Michael 🙂
Lovely look around some classic BMC BL Rover Austin Rover and Rover cars Ed 😎😎
Thanks Neil 🙂
great video, some lovely cars on there and a good, concise description, very informative, well done
Thanks Simon, very kind of you to say 🙂
A brilliant selection of the BL cars that i love, and sadly so many others love to hate..
I quite like the mildly facelifted Rover Group cars like the Metro GS. My favourite of those was the 1.3 GTa.
I like them too. The GTa and Sport were smart little things. Strange considering the MG was still about, but they had a much classier character, and I’d guess they were testing the water for the later Rover-badged GTa and GTi.
Is 6:40AM here, after a crazy F1 race, a bit of Twin Cam to relax and then some Sleep 😁
Guess why I uploaded the video so early 😉
I was bored of waiting for the race to restart 🤣
I love an ADO16.
I'd like to know more about the twin cam setup in that Marina though.
I'd take any (all?) of them!
9:00 Back in 1975, the company I worked for had three gaffers, all of whom bought a Wolseley "Wedge". One maroon, one white and one green. I wish I had photographed them now.
The standardised headlamp capsules on the commercial vehicles are cheaper solution for many companies. It's same in the United States as well. Commercial vehicles get in the minor (or major) mishapes many times, and the headlamp replacement can cost so much money in material and labour. Using the capsules is cheapest and quickest way.
Great video Ed. Had a 1.3 Marina as my first car. Totally standard mind😂
Thanks mate 🙂
I was going to mention about Princesses not even being called "Princesses" to begin with, but of course you would know that! 😂🤣 The rarest of these old models is the Austin - I know of only one survivor (blue paintwork) but I don't think she's roadworthy at present.
That Coupè at the end also looks like it's sport a Ford 5 speed (possibly late Capri) judging by the gear stick and knob.
Ahh yes, we were talking about that at the show but I forgot to mention it in the video!
We were saying probably Sierra, but I’d guess Capris used the same ‘box?
Great video👍
Thanks Andrew 🙂
A very nice exhibition ! 👍
Thanks mate 🙂
@@TwinCam it's always a pleasure to see your vidéos. Very well documented for a fan of British cars like me. Keep on !!!☺️
I never understood why the MG Maestro/Montego Turbo only had a single carb.
You'd think they'd've used the MG EFi engine.
I've never seen an R8 Tomcat in person but that dash and door panels seen at 4:34 scream Honda Concerto all day long.
That’s because it is a Honda Concerto!
The R8 and YY were a 50:50 collaboration between Rover and Honda. See my video on a 220 GTi from a couple of months ago for more!
@@TwinCam yup my point exactly. Concertos were great cars too.
R8 was leagues ahead of the Escort/Orion.
Nice vid
Thanks Ian 🙂
Some great examples. The Metro GS gets my vote. I also notice on the first pan around the beige Metro which looks like it has the larger 15" Maestro/Montego lattice wheels on it and that's something I've always wanted to see. Might be an optical illusion though and be the 14s!
Not quite! They’re standard 13” Metro alloys. From a Turbo, to be precise.
Maestros and Montegos did get a very similar alloy, in 14” rather than the Metro’s 13”, and in a different stud pattern, though the K-Series Rover Metro switched to Maestro stud pattern, so from then on the wheels were identical, save for being an inch smaller.
@@TwinCam I forget how small the Metro wheels are! They look in proportion though as does the car itself.
They’re very teeny.
I saw a picture of a Metro in Thailand recently, and it’s been fitted with 10” wheels. They look brilliant.
I'm assuming that the smaller headlamp units of the Maestro van were cheaper to replace, if they got pranged during a tricky delivery run.
That’s the one.
11/10 22 Great stuff - Is this an annual event ? Dates & location please ! It's tragic that this with so much of the UK's engineering & manufacturing heritage that also provided so much skilled employment has disappeared changing today's lifestyles for so many. Curious to know your Dayjob & Daily Drive. Have you considered making a vid' featuring BL's export & overseas manufactured models ? Tough call !
Indeed it is. Last Sunday of September.
Ed, the 16v modded A Series in the Marina was a real wow! I've not seen that conversion before. Looked very tasty. Is there any history about it on the Web?
It’ll be just the same as any 16v converted Mini!
If you Google anything related to Twin-Cam Mini or 16v Mini, you’ll find examples of conversions.
505 maestro turbos? Never knew they were thar rare, rode in one years ago and it was monstrously fast
Indeed so. Lots of people put Turbo stickers on their 2.0 EFi. Plus, people on the internet today like to tell people they had one. Chances are, they didn’t.
Montego Turbos, however, weren’t limited editions, and sold much better.
@@TwinCamI seem to remember it had an mg level trim and finish, but i don't know if it's my mind playing tricks it's been so long.and if I'd known they were so rare at the time I'd have scrutinised it harder, so hard to say. Was nice whatever it was
Funnily enough I don't recall the Montego MGs
I'd have the Tomcat.
All lovely cars spoilt in the main by one thing - poor build quality and in some cases under development. Nevertheless fond memories particularly of the Metro range and the Marina 1.3 Coupe. Great video.🙂👍
Thanks Johnathan 🙂
So the Rover 213 was a re-badged Honda Civic?
Sort of. It was based on the Honda Ballade, which was a different model line to the Civic, but heavily based on it. The Ballade was to the Civic what the Orion was to the Ford Escort, basically.
Indeed John.
The Ballade also had a Civic front-end, but the Rover had a unique face.
Additionally, Rover changed the tune of the suspension because they weren’t happy with Honda’s work, and from ‘86, Honda applied the Rover suspension to their own cars!
This American thinks the Landcrab looks miles better than the Princess
A collection of misfits. BL? Did they actually produce a single decent car? MG, Austin, Morris, Riley, Jaguar all gobbled up and spewed forth as shoddy stains on the memory of once great marques.
Strange thing to say. From Jaguar there was the XJ and XJ-S. From Rover were the Range Rover and SD1. From Austin-Morris came the Princess and Metro. And that’s just in the years the company was called BL, from 1968 to 1980.
To disregard these is lazy at best.